Acaill Bheag

Acaill Bheag held nearly two hundred souls in 1841 before the Atlantic and poverty bled its population to zero by 1966. The island did not die quietly; it surrendered its people to Achill and the mainland, leaving behind a lighthouse that replaced Clare Island's beacon and a small plaque honouring Johnny Kilbane's championship win. Holiday homes still dot the centre between two hills, but they sit empty most of the year, waiting for visitors to measure how much life a tiny rock can lose and still remember.