Rock Island (Ireland)

Rock Island (Irish: Oileán na Carraige)[1] is a promontory in West Cork, Ireland, situated about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) south of the village of Goleen, at the entrance to the inlet of Crookhaven.

Rock Island and Crookhaven Lighthouse from landside

Not a true island, Rock Island is surrounded on three sides by sea while a small strip of land with a road connects it to the mainland. It is notable for the Crookhaven Lighthouse (built in 1843 on the site of a former structure) which lights the way into the natural harbour of Crookhaven.[2] Surrounding the lighthouse are nine cottages (built in the 1860s), once the property of Irish Lighthouses, now privately owned holiday cottages.[3] These were formerly the accommodation for the lighthouse keepers and their families of three local lighthouses: Crookhaven, Mizen Head and Fastnet Rock. The lighthouses are now fully automatic, requiring no keepers. Towards the west end of the peninsula is a terrace of houses built in 1907 as a coastguard station, now converted to private holiday accommodation; this replaced an earlier range of buildings erected in the early 19th century, when Crookhaven was a centre both for legitimate coastal shipping and for smuggling activity. A watch tower was built on Rock Island c. 1800, after the attempted French landing at Bantry in 1796.[4]