Have you ever wanted to stay on an island all by yourself? That is the experience we had this week which was one of the highlights of the trip. The Great Blasket Island used to be a fishing village, but there have not been people living full time on the island since the 1950s. Today, there is a hostel with rooms you can rent and a caretaker to help out. No electricity, but there is water (cold) and gas to cook with. Getting there is a bit of a journey in itself. We left Dingle on the Peg Sayers tour boat with Billy as our captain and his father in law, Chris, adding geological insights.

Next we have to transfer from the tour boat onto a raft to motor to the shore.

After walking up a VERY long hill to get to the hostel, we were greeted by this lovely view of the hostel (white) and the beach.

Exploring the island, there were beautiful sunsets to the west, old cottages that were just stone walls now, wildlife (Mark found a baby seagull nest and caught a great video of a seal saying “hi”), and other beautiful sites to see.

Finally, we went on a boat tour of the smaller Blasket Islands. We had a pod of dolphins chasing alongside our boat and playfully jumping out of the water. Also saw some puffins that were actually in nature, not in a zoo! Beautiful rock formations and even saw a herd of red deer on top of one of the peaks.