Sea and land meet at Inis Oirr / Inisheer on beach and shore. Both are dynamical landforms and draw devotees of different needs and quests.
Two green coast awarded beaches, known colloquially as An Trá and Trá Poll na gCaorach are wonderful bleached white strands – all the more bejeweled when seen through the clear ocean waters which twice daily wash over them. They are popular beaches for swimming, walking, water sports or just hanging about on long island summer days.
In contrast the shorelines of Inis Oirr / Inisheer are predominantly rocky, karst and broken. The essential element which gives these shores their unique character, is a granulated limestone that shoulders and divides the ever approaching sea, with long and bluff sculpted rock striations.
This is a shore of prodigious marine life, a temperate coast of incessant waves and watery convections. It is also the domain of the glistening seaweeds of Carageen and Dillisk who bask and flourish in the light and nutrients of a low sea depth and pristine tidal waters.
And never to forget the magic of low tide pools, whose shimmer can still bring forth the child in all who dare to stare: a watery kaleidoscope of marine life, colour and unmediated and evocative tidal aromas.
