High Island

Ardoilean is a small, empty island off Connemara where an early hermitage still stands beside a seventh-century cross-slab. Richard Murphy owned it from 1969 to 1998, wanting to protect its derelict sacred cells from tourists or sheep rather than exploit them. The island later reappeared for sale at 1.25 million euros, proving that even withdrawn holiness becomes a transaction when human desire turns inward.