Ireland day 1380. Wednesday 09 July 2025- Tory Island 2

Today’s summary	Woke up this morning after a decent night’s sleep. Still not back to normal but a lot better than yesterday. Enjoyed a good breakfast then donned warm waterproofs for a walk around the island. Visited the lighthouse and Derek Hill’s cabin in the morning then returned to the hotel for a cup of tea before going on to the east of the island to see the East Town and the cliffs around the Wishing Rock. Back at the hotel for a cup of tea at 5:30
Today’s weather	Cold grey damp and windy in the morning. Brightened up a lot in the afternoon and the sun came out for a while. Strong to gale force south westerly wind. Appx 14c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Tory Island Explorer

Commentary

I have noticed that people, when they get older, start obsessing about whether had a good night’s sleep or not. Anyway you will be glad to know that I had a good night’s sleep last night (!) and woke up feeling considerably better than I had yesterday. I’m not firing on all cylinders yet, but I actually managed to enjoy a decent breakfast and felt set to start a day of exploring. Which is a good thing, as we are only here for two full days (three nights) and I had already spent one of them lolling around in bed. The ferry journey isn’t particularly pleasant, so I don’t think we will be hurrying to return. Which made it doubly important to be able to get out and see something today.

It was cold damp grey and windy when we set out – an island norm I fear – so once again we donned warm waterproof gear before heading out to have a look at the western half of the island. Our hotel is right in the middle, which makes it an ideal spot to start explorations in all directions.

It’s a pretty bleak landscape, it had to be said. The persistent wind means there are no trees, and turf harvesting (for heating) over the centuries has removed most of the topsoil, leaving a lot of the landscape barren and gravelly. But wildflowers and birds seem to be colonising it, so the ecoscape is changing and adapting.

Our first destination was the lighthouse. It’s fully functioning (we could see the revolving lamp at the top) though like almost all lighthouses nowadays, it’s unmanned and some of the out-buildings looked a bit derelict.

From there, we walked on to the Commonwealth War Grave (a number of British mariners from the HMS Wasp, which sunk off the coast of Tory Island in 1884, are interred here) and then to Derek Hill’s studio. Hill was a British artist who died in 2000 but made Donegal – and Tory Island in particular – his adopted home. He acquired an old Lloyds (of London) telegraph station on a remote headland to the west of the main island settlement, and made it his studio. He particularly appreciated the clarity of the light for his painting.

After that, we returned to our centrally-located hotel and had a cup of tea before setting off on the second part of our adventure. By this time, the sun had come out and it almost felt like we were on a different island. We headed out east this time, passing the church, shop, school and even a de-fused wartime torpedo.

We bypassed the East Town and headed straight for An Tor Mor, the impressive rocky headland at the far end of the island. We climbed to the top, had a look at the Wishing Stone, and then beat a hasty retreat, keen to seek shelter from the wind. So we made our way straight down to Port an Duin, where we found a very nice sheltered cove to enjoy one of Val’s delicious chocolate chip cookies and which we’d brought with us.

After soaking up the rare sunshine for half an hour or so, we slowly sauntered back to the hotel. Along the way we crossed over to the north coast to admire the impressive sea stacks (see banner image at the top) and called in at the An Post to send some cards and pick up a couple of bottles of water.

The rest of the evening was pretty quiet – cups of tea, then dinner which for me consisted of a bowl of soup and some ginger ale. And just now, Val has gone out corncrake-hunting but when she gets back, I think it’s going to be another early night, hoping for a good night’s sleep, as people of my generation are wont to say.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Still not back to full strength, but massively better than yesterday – as this morning’s breakfast attests	Another grey and windswept start to the day. But it brightened up nicely later on

By the artist Derek Hill’s studio on a remote headland in the west of the island. A fabulous spot but my goodness it’s bleak	Inside Colmcille’s church. The stained glass window at the for end was made by Dublin artist Sarah Purser’s school of artists

The Torpedo. It was washed ashore during the second world war and subsequently defused. But history doesn’t seem to record whether it was of British or German origin	The Wishing Rock, at the far eastern end of the island, is the small pimple on the clifftop. It’s said you get a wish if you either climb up onto it and turn around three times, or if you manage to throw three stones which successfully land on the top. I declined both opportunities

The Tory Island Tau Cross – erected about 900 years ago and survived the ravages of the Cromwellian invasion. It is one of only two such icons in Ireland