Sherkin Island.

Sherkin Island lies in Roaring Water Bay County Cork a ten minute ferry trip from the town of Baltimore Near the pier is a castle once the ancestral home of the O’Driscoll clan who ruled Sherkin Island in earlier times, nearby are the ruins of a 15th century Franciscan abbey built in 1460 by Fineen O'Driscoll., it may possibly hold the record for the shortest surviving abbey in Ireland because by 1537 it was in ruin, destroyed it is said by a neighbouring clan.

The island covers an area of 1,400 acres is three miles long and one and a half wide, a tarmac road traverses the spine of the island. There are several good bathing beaches on the island Trá Eoghan Mhór and Trá Bán to name but two, the highest point id Slievemor (Big mountain) rises to 112 Metres

The flora and fauna of the island attracts nature lovers and bird watchers in great numbers. Sherkin Island has its own privately funded marine station if you visit their web site you can discover much about the ecology of not only Sherkin Island but many of the smaller islands surrounding it.

Sherkin Island has two pubs and several B & B's, its present population stands at about 100