Native name: Cléire | |
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 View from the island's South Harbour | |
  Cape Clear Island Cape Clear Island (Ireland) | |
| Geography | |
| Location | Carbery's Hundred Isles |
| Coordinates | 51°26′N9°30′W / 51.433°N 9.500°W /51.433; -9.500 |
| Area | 6.7 km2 (2.6 sq mi) |
| Length | 5.2 km (3.23 mi) |
| Width | 2.4 km (1.49 mi) |
| Highest elevation | 160 m (520 ft) |
| Highest point | Cnoicín an tSeabhaic |
| Administration | |
Ireland | |
| Province | Munster |
| County | Cork |
| Barony | Carbery West |
| Demographics | |
| Population | 110 (2022)[1] |
| Pop. density | 18.6/km2 (48.2/sq mi) |
| Additional information | |
| Official website | capeclearisland |
| The island is aGaeltacht | |
Clear Island orCape Clear Island (officially known by itsIrish name:Cléire, and sometimes also calledOileán Chléire)[2][3] is an island off the south-west coast ofCounty Cork inIreland. It is the southernmost inhabited part of Ireland and had a population of 110 people as of the2022 census.[4]
The island is aGaeltacht area (Irish-speaking area),[5] in which Irish is spoken on a daily basis. The nearest neighbouring island isSherkin Island, which is 2 kilometres (1 nautical mile) east of Cape Clear Island.
The island is divided into east and west halves by anisthmus called the Waist, with the North Harbour to the landward side and the South Harbour on the seaward side.[6] Ferries sail regularly from the North Harbour toSchull andBaltimore on the mainland. The South Harbour is a popular berth foryachts and pleasure boats during the summer months.
Archaeological sites on the island include aprehistoric cup-marked stone (currently in the island's museum), afulacht fiadh at Gort na Lobhar, aNeolithicpassage tomb at Cill Leire Forabhain, severalstanding stones around the island, apromontory fort at Dún an Óir, and a signal tower dating from theNapoleonic Wars.[7][8][9] The island also has a number of early Christian sites, and is reputed to be the birthplace ofSaint Ciarán of Saigir. The ruin of a 12th-century church, which has protectednational monument status, is close to the main pier in the North Harbour.[10]
The island had a population of over 1,052 before the19th century famine, but the current population of Cape Clear is less than one-eighth of that figure. The island's primary school was built in 1897, and was visited byPresident of IrelandMary McAleese in 1998.[citation needed]
Cape Clear was originally supplied with electricity produced by diesel generators on the island, but around 1995 these were replaced with asubmarine power cable from the mainland.[11]
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| Sources:Central Statistics Office."CNA17: Population by Off Shore Island, Sex and Year". Retrieved12 October 2016. and"E2021 - Population of Inhabited Islands Off the Coast 2011 to 2016 (Number) by Islands, CensusYear and Sex". Retrieved27 November 2020.[permanent dead link]. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The island is officially identified as aGaeltacht (Irish-speaking) area. According to the 2016 census there were 145 people over the age of 3 living on the island, with 62% claiming to be able to speak Irish and 27% saying they spoke Irish daily outside the education system.[12][13]
The population of the island increases in the summer months as students visit the local Irish Colleges, Coláiste Phobal Chléire and Coláiste Chiaráin.[14] Students stay in local houses or dorms and improve their spoken Irish as part of the immersion courses within the Gaeltacht.
Every first weekend of September, the island hosts the Cape Clear Island International Storytelling Festival. The festival has been running annually since 1994.[15]
Seals,basking sharks anddolphins are often found in the surrounding waters, whilesea pinks andhoneysuckle are common plants on the land.[16] Cape Clear is home to alighthouse and abird observatory. Cape Clear is popular with bird watchers and at certain times of the year is home to many species of migratory birds as its climate is milder than the mainland and thus more attractive.[17]Bird life includesblack andcommon guillemots,cormorants andstorm petrels.
Electricity and house water was a 'luxury' that only arrived on the island in the 1970s and a submarine cable bringing electricity from the mainland 8 miles away arrived only about 1995.
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