Inisheer Villages

Inisheer Island is the smallest of the 3 Aran Islands.  It has a population of about 300 people.  It is considered the wildest of the 3 islands.  There are 5 small villages on the island, the local folks know where each village begins and ends, to us it just looked like one small town.  It is a very beautiful place dotted with cottages and divided by thousands of rock walls.

In the past the islanders had to squeeze out a living from the limestone terrain which, through unremitting toil, they managed to partially clear. These islanders had to transport soil from the mainland or scrape it from the cracks in the rocks and fertilize it with seaweed to grow feed for their livestock. The maze-like dry stone walls that surround their little fields are still in evidence throughout the islands today. Tourism has now improved the fortunes of the islanders who once had to eke a living from fishing and weaving. Their Aran sweaters are world famous - though unfortunately, these days few of them are hand-knitted.