The Dingle Peninsula, at the western end of the Irish county of Kerry, submerges into the waters of the Atlantic Ocean as slowly as a whale. In fact, tourists who come to this area of ??Isla Verde come precisely to watch wildlife. Because the human population is rather scarce.
Opposite Dingle is the small archipelago of the Blaskets. Only the largest island is inhabited today. And only in the months of good weather, because the solitudes of autumn and winter cannot resist even the most stoic. Today Gran Blasket is visited by those who want a very intense contact with the salty Irish wind, solitary walks and to restore themselves in the only cafeteria that is open between April and September.
When disembarking you have to climb a steep staircase, but it is only to save the natural cliff. Then, the little island, barely 6 kilometers long, is a succession of soft herbaceous slides among which some swampy areas are camouflaged. There are trails that allow you to cross the Great Blasket in just an hour and a half, if one of the terrible storms that breaks out in the Celtic sea almost without warning does not appear. If that’s the case, hurry back to Dingle, the strait’s currents and swells are among the most dangerous in Europe.
If the weather is stable, binoculars and a field guide will be the hiker’s best allies, since as soon as you stick your nose out of the cliffs you will be able to encounter colonies of elegant gannets and other seabirds that are easy to spot here, such as the petrel or the great skua. In addition to hundreds of gulls of different species, with the yellow-legged Atlantic as the great dominator.
In the deep waters of Blasket, herds of common dolphins and gray seals play and can be seen, which today number in the dozens but which did not finally settle on the island until the human population disappeared. Gran Blasket reached close to 200 souls at its peak. But in the middle of the 20th century, people could no longer bear living without electricity, running water or –above all– health care. The colony was aged and left behind the cries of seabirds and the snorts of whales.
The remains of the houses inhabited until 1954 remain –most of them with their roofs caved in and in poor condition– and some defense towers and signs along the coastline, making the walk very entertaining and evocative.
There are boats that run from Dingle Harbor to the Great Blasket so that birdwatchers and walkers can spend a few hours on it or even navigate to the smaller islets. In recent years, some cottages (typical cabins) have been set up that are rented for the holiday period, and that the cafeteria managers are in charge of keeping clean and in order.
By the way, every year the two positions for “caretakers” on the island are put out for competition and, contrary to what it might seem, there are slaps to cover them. It is an intense experience of solitude and contact with nature, and one imagines that a period of six months can be tolerated by anyone, knowing that when the rainy and cold season arrives one will return to the modern routine of electric lighting and hot water in the shower.
The capital of the county of Kerry, Tralee, a small city of just over 20,000 inhabitants, is the reference to visit Great Blasket (An Blascaod Mór, in Gaelic). From there it is an hour’s drive to Dingle Harbour.
