9 minute read
WILD SHORE
Shores
IN THESE EXTRACTS FROM HIS NEW BOOK, WILD SHORES, RICHARD NAIRN EXPLORES THE LOVE THAT SHORES, RICHARD NAIRN EXPLORES THE LOVE THAT ROBERT LLOYD PRAEGER HAD FOR IRELAND’S ISLANDS
The great Irish naturalist, Robert Lloyd Praeger (1865-1953), visited numerous o shore islands in Ireland at a time when many were still inhabited and he wrote with passion about them in his books, including e Way that I Went. “Islands are always fascinating”, he wrote, “particularly if they are small. eir aloofness makes a curious appeal. Picture the romance of approaching, a er days of unbroken horizon, an unknown island!”
Lambay is the largest island on the east coast and it remains a privately owned wildlife sanctuary. In 1904 the new owner of the island, Cecil Baring, came to the National Library seeking information concerning his new possession. Here he met Praeger and, in the words of the naturalist, ‘he told me how he and his wife saw in e Field an advertisement ‘Irish island for sale’, and how they promptly bought it and set about making habitable its old castle.
Baring was keen to ‘enhance’ nature on the island, so he introduced a herd of fallow deer and, curiously, a group of wallabies from Australia. e descendants of both species are still present today.
With common interests in natural history, Praeger and Baring quickly became friends and the former wrote how he and his wife spent ‘many a delightful holiday’ on the island as guests of the Barings. Praeger, who was deeply interested in island biogeography, the unique assemblage of species on an isolated area of land, relished this opportunity and wasted no time. ‘Shortly a er he took possession of the island, I suggested to him that a detailed study of its natural productions – animal, vegetable and mineral – would be interesting, and might have important scientific results. He accepted the suggestion at once.’ Praeger immediately set about organising a team and, during 1905 and 1906, twenty di erent naturalists stayed on Lambay and, in his own words they ‘ransacked the island from end to end’. e result was a series of papers, published in the Irish Naturalist on the natural history of Lambay. Some of the animal groups were poorly studied at that time so it does not seem surprising today that the surveys resulted in ve new species to science and between eighty and ninety animals and plants that were previously unrecorded in Ireland.
Praeger went on to say, “Several islands lie o the South Mayo coast which are well worth a visit by those to whom the heave of the ocean is an exhilaration and not a burden. […] Many a wild crossing I have had among these islands.” Praeger repeatedly mentioned the many values of the curragh, the traditional boat design of the west coast. “ e curragh serves as a tent also, for the lobster-men o en spend a night on homeless islands, sleeping comfortably under the overturned boat whatever the weather may be”. He then recalled an event where the crew of one of these rowing boats saved him and some colleagues from spending an uncomfortable night on an uninhabited island near Inishturk.
Today you can catch a powerful ferry from Roonagh Quay to the island of Inishturk, which is sandwiched between Inishbo n and Clare Island. Praeger and his wife, Hedwig, spent “an interesting week” on the island in 1906 where they stayed in a shed perched on a low rock with deep water half surrounding it. To make it habitable they removed from the oor “a half-inch compacted layer of Portland cement, herring scales, petroleum and sawdust. en we settled down, surrounded by coils of wire, boxes of dynamite, and bags of cement, and we fried sh, baked bread and cooked bacon and eggs on a small pan over a smoky stove”.
Today, the island has a permanent population of about 60 although in 1861 more than twice as many people lived there and they were then entirely Irish speaking. I wandered right around the cli -bound island, regularly leaving the circular road, following choughs and puzzling over heaps of rocks that might have been the remains of deserted cottages. Here too I saw a great skua, the newest addition to Ireland’s impressive list of breeding seabirds. It was traditionally con ned to the northern islands of Scotland but has recently been expanding its range around Ireland as it adapted to preying on sh discarded by vessels at sea. e Clare Island Survey of 1909–11 was one of the outstanding achievements in Praeger’s life and was organised almost single-handedly by him. With characteristic energy, he organised multiple teams of up to a dozen of the leading experts in their specialist elds in Ireland, Britain and other European countries. ey scoured Clare Island, neighbouring islands and the seabed for records of plants and animals while also describing placenames, agriculture, climate, geology and antiquities. In total, a hundred workers took part in the surveys including many well-known specialists. “For three consecutive years, six or eight parties went out in spring or
Saltee cave by R. Nairn
Puffin by Mike Brown
summer or autumn, and indeed there was no month of the twelve in which one of our collectors might have not been found investigating seaweeds or earthworms or mosses.” His own work in organising the massive undertaking including the publication of the results in three large volumes “occupied his leisure time for six years”. He described the whole exercise as “a full, stimulating and interesting time”.
In retrospect, Praeger’s ground-breaking Clare Island Survey is now seen as a thorough baseline measurement of an undeveloped area which has not been immune from the pervasive and long-term effects of habitat loss and land-use change as well as climate change. This was the understanding that led, a century later, to the Royal Irish Academy repeating the exercise with the intention of assessing and evaluating change on the island over the intervening years.
Praeger visited the Great Blasket in Kerry at the beginning of the 20th century when most of the islanders were still in residence. He wrote that the village was then “a prized sanctuary of the Irish language, a place of pilgrimage for students of the ancient tongue. Hence one is able to stay there, if
fish and potatoes are deemed a sufficient diet.” His memories of the islanders are illustrated by one amusing event.
“When I botanised there one of the party was A.W. Stelfox of the National Museum who was investigating the Mollusca. The island children, consumed with curiosity, followed us about, and watched with astonishment the collecting of box-snails and slugs. Presently we went home to our usual dinner of one herring and potatoes. When we emerged again a deputation was waiting for us – half the children of the island, bearing cans, boxes, saucers, cloth caps and what-not all full of crawling molluscs, which they told us, a penny or two might add to our possessions. It was difficult to explain to them that only certain rarer kinds were sought for; when they realized that their labour had been in vain, the whole of their spoils was emptied at our feet, and for the rest of our stay at the cottage, inside and out, was alive with these interesting but unwelcome animals which, with misdirected energy, penetrated to every corner, and wrote their slimy autographs on wall and floor and ceiling.”
During this visit, Praeger collected a large number of plants and in 1912 he published a note in which he described the work done by previous botanists. Today, it is unlikely that any of the rarer plant species survive as the Great Blasket is grazed to a short sward by flocks of hardy sheep that survive the harsh oceanic conditions by sheltering behind stone walls and buildings left by the islanders.
The Saltee Islands off Wexford have long held a fascination for ornithologists due to their large seabird colonies. Praeger described the larger of the two islands, Great Saltee, as “one of the most populous and interesting breeding-grounds of seabirds to be found in Ireland”. He recalled, “I made the acquaintance of the wonderful avifauna of the Saltees during a pleasant week in 1913, as one of a party of zoologists and botanists. The birdmen were desirous of studying the night-life of this populous city, so we disclaimed the clock and all its works, and came and went as suited us, by day or by night, sleeping on a wisp of hay on the floor of the farmhouse (and getting plenty of fresh air since half of the roof was gone) or out among the bracken on the hill-side.”
Praeger camped out on numerous remote islands during his tireless efforts to record Ireland’s flora and fauna. Today, many of these islands have returned to nature since their human inhabitants have declined or deserted altogether. They are magical places to explore.
Richard Nairn
Richard Nairn is an ecologist and author living in Wicklow. His most recent book Wild Shores is available from all good bookshops at €14.99 or as an audiobook from audible. co.uk. See our competition page for a chance to win a copy.
Inishturk cliffs by R. Nairn
