Ireland's Eye () is a small long-uninhabited island off the coast of County Dublin, Ireland. Situated directly north of Howth village and harbour, the island is easily reached by regular seasonal tourist boats, which both circumnavigate it and drop off day trippers. There is a yacht anchorage to the north of it, and kayakers also land.
The island is formed from quartzite and greywackes, and some sandstone, and has soils based on glacial drift. It is home to nationally significant bird populations, notably of guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes and cormorants, as well as gulls, and also including modest numbers of puffins and peregrine falcons. There is a colony of grey seals, and surrounding waters also host harbour seals and harbour porpoise, while on land there are rats and rabbits. There is a range of plants, including some rare species and some specific to vegetated cliffs. The island has been essentially uninhabited for centuries but holds the ruins of an early church, and a Martello tower.
The Eye is the basis for both a Special Area of Conservation and a Special Protection Area, and is incorporated within the Howth Special Amenity Area, and the Dublin Bay Biosphere, among other designations. It is part of Fingal for administrative purposes, having been moved to County Dublin along with Howth, Sutton, Baldoyle and Kilbarrack, from the jurisdiction of Dublin. The island was for centuries a possession of the archdiocese of Dublin, and then a component of the Howth Estate. It was sold to the Tetrarch investment group as part of a deal finalised in 2019.
Etymology
The name of the island is often assumed to be related to the eye, but has a quite different origin. According to Patrick Weston Joyce in Irish Local Names Explained (1870), the island was originally called Inis Ereann ("Éire's island"). Éire was both a female name and the Irish-language name for Ireland. Joyce says that the Vikings translated this to Ireland's Ey, with ey being the Old Norse word for "island".
The traditional Irish name of the island was Inis mac Nessan, now Inis Mac Neasáin, "island of the sons of Neasán". This was historically Anglicized as 'Inishmacnessan' and called in Latin Insula Filiorum Nessani. The island has also been known in the past as Inis Faithlenn, "the grassy island",
Nature
Location and structure
Ireland's Eye occupies a prominent site off Howth Head and is a feature of the Howth village and harbour area. It comprises the main island, a range of sea stacks and rocks and a grassy islet, (the) Thulla. The Eye lies 1,200–1,500 metres from Howth Harbour and around 13 km from Dublin city centre. The main island is roughly triangular, the points lying to the northwest, northeast and south, and around 600–700 metres along the edges. The terrain slopes broadly downhill from north to south, and to some extent from northeast to southwest. The most prominent feature is a sea stack called "the Steer", at the northwestern corner of the island, while at the northeastern point is a group of rocks or small sea stacks known as "the Stags". Closer to the Steer than the Stags on the northern coast is Seal's Cave, one of several sea caves. On the south-southwestern face of the island is Carrigeen Bay, with a sandy beach, and above that a shingle beach. Linked by a line of shelving rocks, exposed at low tide ("drying rocks"), the grass-surfaced islet of Thulla lies south of the main island, and the Rowan Rocks to the southeast and east of cliffs on the eastern aspect of the Eye. Also on the eastern coast are two inlets, Samper Hole nearer the Stags, and the longer and narrow Long Hole just north of the rocks linking the main island to Thulla. Between the island and Baldoyle Spit off Portmarnock Point is Howth Sound, and to the southwest the channel between the island and Howth Harbour, while in all other directions open sea extends for kilometres. The main island has sea-level coast on the western side, but on the east cliffs are 10s of metres high, while the island's highest point is about 69m above sea level. In total, there are just over 2.5 kilometres of cliff. Thulla is at most two metres above the water.