A unique aspect of Inis Oirr / Inisheer that visitors continually remark upon on first exploring the island, is the wonderful arrangement of sights and scenery within a very accessible locale.
On approach and arrival, marvelous natural vistas and historical sights are immediately gained. Further exploration by foot, hire bicycle or pony and trap lead the visitor on a magical procession through mixed historical and vast geological time. Though bounded by the ever-changing western sea, Inis Oirr / Inisheer is in possession of a surprising array of historical sights – remnants of successive waves of human culture that have swept over this beautiful and wild Atlantic island.
Inis Oirr /Inisheer’s wonderful collection of archaeological features and cultural landscapes are vestiges of a rich prehistorical and historical past, and boast examples of Bronze Age, Pagan, Celtic, Early Christian, Norman-Irish, Pastural, Maritime Navigational and more recent artifacts, all accessible to the visitor and free of entry charge.
For those who harbour a desire to escape historical time and cast back to a more primal or elemental world, this wild Atlantic island will be only too happy to oblige. This is an island of big skies and the intimation of a shimmering sea everywhere to be found, while underfoot is a karst landscape of weathered limestone, save for the thin and walled soils of sensitive and traditional agriculture. All is low on Inis Oirr / Inisheer, a sort a blend of immanent natural and human landscape, an inspiring place where land and sea not only to meet but seem as one.
To sit or walk through a whirling sea breeze on a grainy limestone world of vast horizons is a wonderful and unmediated experience, as it is to watch a long summers days surrender to a western twilight and a limitless night sky.
When on Inis Oirr / Inisheer, one must also gaze down low, here sheltered among endless rock crevices and small walled fields is an abundant ecosystem of flora and fauna, in natural cover from an ever-changing sea climate. Here, untrammeled by the heavy hand of modern agriculture, is a wonderful community of meadow grasses, ferns and wild flowers whose names are nearly as exotic as their displays, and are botanical classified under Maiden Hair, Spring Gentian, Bee Orchid and Bloody Cranesbill.
Everywhere, between sky and land are the wonderful wind-held Atlantic and island birds – among the familiar residents and seasonal visitors are cormorants, arctic terns and swift kestrels.
