The Dark Isle

When staying in Anagry in County Donegal, I took the opportunity to strike out by myself for a couple of hours one morning. Off I went, beyond the dune flanked runway of Carrickfinn Airport. I pulled over near some long abandoned farm machinery, checked the map and struck out for the closest curved beach. I joined a well worn track, passing calves and their mothers, on I went over the rise and took in the beauty of the scene before me.

Not a single person stood on the fine white sand ahead and no footprints to mark the newly washed beach, the tide now on its way out. Then just as soon as I had jumped on to the virgin sand, a couple of women came ambling down another slope, making their way to the same beach. How dare they! So I got a few shots away of the beach, before it became marked once more.

The Dark Isle
The Dark Isle

 

We soon struck up a  conversation and it turned out that one of the ladies had lived there nearly all her life. She told tales of how other children would swim off the beach in the morning and, along with her own children, would fly into her house and have a hearty breakfast. She was a mine of wonderful information. The scene in the image above is of that beach, but also depicts a darker secret.

The isle in the centre is marked at its peak by a plain wooden cross. Lower down the slope is another cross, painted white. Here is where the unbaptised babies would be buried. All in a scene as pretty as this.

So if you want to know more of a place that you are visiting, talk to a local.

 

33 thoughts on “The Dark Isle”

  3. Yes John – talking to local is usually a good way to get the most relevant (and irrelevant) information about any given area.. lol

    Love this shot – #Serene!

    ML
    x

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  4. Travel and adventure has so much to do with the stories you hear and the history you learn.
    Unbaptised babies … so sad the doings of humans

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  6. Now THIS MM is a dream . Aah I love it . What with the *dark secret about the Isle it makes for a thought provoking image .

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    1. It does make it all the more fascinating. I loved the story too that the kids would all go for a morning swim here and then rush back to this woman’s house to pile into a breakfast, including the neighbours kids. Almost sounds like Enid Blyton. Just with a dark secret, MM 👍

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  11. That is the best way to discover a place! And isn’t it wonderful (even if the story is dark) to hear such things? Beautiful picture.

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