Overview
Illauntannig (Irish: Oileán tSeanaigh, the island of St Seanach) is the largest of the Maharee Islands, the low scatter of rocks known locally as the Seven Hogs off the northern tip of the Magharee Peninsula in County Kerry. Its draw is a well-preserved early Christian monastery, ringed by a drystone cashel that makes the island recognisable from the mainland.
One thing to be clear about before you plan anything: this is a state-owned National Monument in the care of the Office of Public Works, and the OPW states plainly that public access is not permitted. Most people see Illauntannig from a boat passing offshore, from a sea-angling or diving trip around the Maharees, or simply from the beaches on the Magharee Peninsula opposite. If you go out on the water near it, the OPW also warns that these are unguided sites visited at your own risk.
Early Christian Heritage
The archaeological heart of Illauntannig is its early Christian monastic settlement, founded somewhere between the 5th and 7th centuries – the sources don’t agree on which. Tradition attributes it to St Seanach, brother of the more widely known St Senán of Scattery Island. Classified as a National Monument and protected by the Office of Public Works, the site is enclosed by a sturdy cashel (drystone wall) that shelters a compact but impressive collection of structures.
Behind the cashel wall sit:
- Two oratories: a larger corbelled church, its tooling close to Irish Romanesque style, and a smaller boat-shaped chapel.
- Three clochán (beehive huts), roofless now, built by the traditional corbelled drystone technique.
- Three leachta, stone-faced mounds about a metre high and topped with quartz pebbles.
- A stone cross, 1.82 metres high with bevelled edges and four perforations, standing on the west side of the middle leacht.
- Three cross-slabs, since moved into the larger oratory, plus ballaun stones and a souterrain.
A shell midden inside the walls has been radiocarbon-dated to the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age, so people were using this island thousands of years before the monks arrived – the monastery may even have been raised on an earlier cashel. A hand-bell dated to roughly 600–900 AD was found here and is now in the National Museum of Ireland. The Romanesque-style tooling suggests the larger oratory was still in use into the 12th century.
Seeing the island
Because landing is not permitted, the practical question is how to get a good look at it. The island lies only about a mile off Scraggane Pier near Castlegregory, and the sheltered water of the Maharee Sound is popular with local boat trips, sea anglers and divers – any of these will bring you close enough to make out the cashel and the beehive huts. The mainland beaches on the Magharee Peninsula, and Scraggane Pier itself, give you the island in profile from dry land.
There’s a living connection too: a Mass has at times been revived on the island, with a fishing boat carrying people out from Fenit, part of a pilgrimage tradition tied to the old monastery. These are occasional events rather than a scheduled service, so they’re worth asking about locally rather than planning a trip around.
Wildlife
The low, grassy Maharees are seabird islands, and the sound between them is good water for marine life – basking sharks and dolphins turn up off this stretch of Kerry coast in summer. From a boat, binoculars do more for you here than anything else. Keep your distance from nesting birds and from the ground itself: the whole point of the access restriction is to protect a fragile 1,500-year-old site.
Practical Information
- Access: Public access to the island is not permitted (Office of Public Works). There is no charge to see it from the water or the mainland.
- Status: State-owned National Monument (reference no. 67), protected under the National Monuments Acts 1930–2014.
- Best time to see it: May to September brings the calmest seas and the most local boat activity around the Maharees.
- Getting close: Scraggane Pier near Castlegregory is the nearest launch point; ask locally about sea-angling or diving trips that pass the island.
If you want the story without the boat, Ahamore Abbey on nearby Illauneana has a comparable early Christian settlement and a turf cottage, and the Blue Flag sands of Barrow Beach are a short drive on the mainland. For the ruins themselves, Illauntannig is best treated as something to read about and look at rather than land on – which is, in its way, part of why the stonework has lasted 1,500 years.