What is recorded here

Bishop's Island, a promontory fort off the west coast of Clare, is a small landmass that lost its connection to the mainland when the sea took the narrow strip of earth between them. The name suggests a church or a leader once lived there, and the straight line cut across the grass may have been a wall built to keep out danger or mark a boundary. The cliffs across the water still stand thirty metres high, watching the place where a road to the mainland has become a gap of salt and foam.

An island (c. 200m E-W; 110m N-S) known as 'Bishop's Island' lies about 200m off the shore W of Kilkee in an area of flat grazing and bog. A defended headland, 'Doonaunroe' (CL055-003----, Clare 12), is visible c. 400m to the SW. The cliffs opposite are c. 30m high. Remains of the collapsed isthmus are visible both on the island and on the mainland. The island is inaccessible at present but the remains of two stone buildings, one rectangular (CL055-004001-) and the other round (CL055-004002-), and a standing stone (CL055-004004-) are clearly visible from the mainland on the eastern half of the island. A straight fosse is visible from the air extending for a distance of 50m across the SE portion of the island suggesting that it may have been defended. The standing-stone is located in this fosse. The remains of the buildings and the name of the island suggested to Westropp (1908, 40-1) that this was the site of a monastic settlement. (Casey 1999, 215, Clare P5) Compiled by: Mary Tunney Date of upload: 21 September 2016

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.