Valentia Island Explained
Valentia Island |
Pushpin Map: | island of Ireland |
Pushpin Relief: | yes |
Native Name: | Dairbhre |
Native Name Link: | Irish language |
Location: | Atlantic Ocean |
Coordinates: | 51.9°N -10.35°W |
Area Km2: | 25.7[1] |
Length Km: | 11 |
Width Km: | 3 |
Country: | Ireland |
Country Admin Divisions Title: | Province |
Country Admin Divisions: | Munster |
Country Admin Divisions Title 1: | County |
Country Admin Divisions 1: | Kerry |
Country Largest City: | Knightstown |
Country Largest City Population: | 244 |
Population: | 658 |
Population As Of: | 2022[2] |
Valentia Island is one of Ireland's most westerly points. It lies off the Iveragh Peninsula in the southwest of County Kerry. It is linked to the mainland by the Maurice O'Neill Memorial Bridge at Portmagee. A car ferry also departs from Reenard Point to Knightstown, the island's main settlement, from April to October. Another, smaller village named Chapeltown sits at roughly the midpoint of the island, 3km (02miles) from the bridge. Valentia Island's permanent population is 658 . It is about 110NaN0 long by almost 3km (02miles) wide, making it the fifth-biggest island off the Irish coast.
Name
The English name 'Valentia' or 'Valencia' Island does not come from the Spanish city of Valencia. Instead it comes from the Irish name of Valentia Harbour, cuan Bhéil Inse, "harbour-mouth of the island".[3] It was anglicized as 'Bealinche' and 'Ballentia' before evolving into 'Valentia'.[4] It is possible the spelling was influenced by Spanish sailors; there is a grave marker to Spanish sailors lost at sea in the Catholic cemetery at Kylemore.
The Irish name for the island is Dairbhre, probably meaning "oak isle". It was historically anglicized as 'Dariry'.[4]
History
Valentia was the eastern terminus of the first commercially viable transatlantic telegraph cable.[5] The first attempt in 1857[6] to land a cable from Ballycarbery Strand on the mainland just east of Valentia Island ended in disappointment. After subsequent failures of cables landed at Knightstown in 1858 and Foilhommerum Bay in 1865,[7] the vast endeavor finally resulted in commercially viable transatlantic telegraph communications from Foilhommerum Bay to Heart's Content, Newfoundland in 1866. Transatlantic telegraph cables operated from Valentia Island for one hundred years, ending with Western Union International terminating its cable operations in 1966.
Before the transatlantic telegraph, American longitude measurements had a 2800feet uncertainty with respect to European longitudes. Because of the importance of accurate longitudes to safe navigation, the United States Coast Survey mounted a longitude expedition in 1866 to link longitudes in the United States accurately to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. Benjamin Gould and his partner A. T. Mosman reached Valentia on 2 October 1866. They built a temporary longitude observatory beside the Foilhommerum Cable Station to support synchronized longitude observations with Heart's Content, Newfoundland. After many rainy and cloudy days, the first transatlantic longitude signals were exchanged between Foilhommerum and Heart's Content on 24 October 1866.The transatlantic cable is currently on the tentative list of UNESCO World Hertiage sites. [8] [9]
On 21 May 1927, Charles A. Lindbergh made his first landfall in Europe over Dingle Bay and Valentia Island on his solo flight from New York to Paris. On the 1927 Mercator chart used by the famous pilot, it was labeled Valencia.[10]
In 1993 an undergraduate geology student discovered fossilised tetrapod trackways, footprints preserved in Devonian rocks, on the north coast of the island at Dohilla (51.9309°N -10.3438°W). About 385 million years ago, a primitive vertebrate passed near a river margin in the sub-equatorial river basin that is now southwestern Ireland and left prints in the damp sand. The prints were preserved by silt and sand overlying them, and were converted to rock over geological time. The Valentia Island trackways are among the oldest signs of vertebrate life on land.[11] [12]
On 14 March 2021, Valentia Island was the site of the first walrus sighting in Ireland.[13]
Places of interest
The combined features and history of the island make it an attractive tourist destination, easily accessible from the popular Ring of Kerry route.
the highest mountain on Valentia Island and the sea cliffs of 600feet on its northern face.
- On the northeast of the island stands Glanleam House amid sub-tropical gardens. Protected by windbreaks from Atlantic gales and never touched by frost, these gardens provide the mildest microclimate in Ireland. Starting in the 1830s, Sir Peter George Fitzgerald, the 19th Knight of Kerry (1808–1880),[14] [15] planted these gardens and stocked them with a unique collection of rare and tender plants from the southern hemisphere, normally grown under glass in Ireland. The gardens are laid out in a naturalistic style as a series of walks. There are plants from South America, Australia, New Zealand (the tallest tree ferns in Europe), Chile and Japan. The gardens are memorialized in a selected golden-variegated Luma apiculata "Glanleam Gold" that originated as a sport in the garden. The gardens are open to the public.
- The slate quarry which reopened in 1998 provided slates for the British Houses of Parliament.[16]
- The island also hosts a heritage centre[17] which tells the story of the geology, human, natural and industrial history of the island, with exhibits on the Cable Station, the Marine Radio Station and the RNLI's Valentia Lifeboat Station.
- The Telegraph Field (or Longitude Field) is the site of the first permanent communications link between Europe and North America Transatlantic telegraph cables operated from Valentia Island from 1866.
Climate
Valentia Island has an oceanic climate (Cfb). Sitting on the eastern edge of the Atlantic Ocean, Valentia Island is, on average, the wettest weather station in Ireland. Despite its being on the same latitude as St. Anthony in Newfoundland on the opposite side of the Atlantic, it enjoys much milder winters thanks to the moderating effect of prevailing west or southwest winds, and the effects of the warming Gulf Stream current. Snow and frost are rare, and because of this the island can support many sub-tropical varieties of plants.
Transport
The R565 road is the main road onto the island. There are two connections to the Irish mainland, the fixed Maurice O'Neill Memorial Bridge to Portmagee, and a seasonal vehicle ferry service from Knightstown.[18]
Sport
Valentia Young Islanders GAA is the local Gaelic Athletic Association club.
Valentia is a popular fishing location, and Valentia waters hold the Irish records for conger eel,[19] red sea bream, Ray's bream and lesser spotted dogfish.[20]
Notable people
See also
External links
Further reading
- Browne, E.T., The fauna and flora of Valencia Harbour on the west coast of Ireland. Proc. R.Ir. Acad., ser.3,5, 667-854
Notes and References
- Book: Knight, Charles. The English Cyclopaedia: Geography. 1867. Bradbury, Evans, & Co.. London. 387. en. Valentia Island, which has an area of 6371disp=sqbrNaNdisp=sqbr and is extremely fertile and tolerably well cultivated,[...]. Charles Knight (publisher). 7 March 2020.
- Population of Inhabited Islands Off the Coast. Central Statistics Office. 2023 . 29 June 2023.
- Web site: Valencia Harbour . Placenames Database of Ireland.
- Web site: Dairbhre/Valencia . Placenames Database of Ireland.
- http://www.sil.si.edu/digitalcollections/hst/atlantic-cable/SIL4-004-093a.jpg The Atlantic Cable
- John R. Isaac, 1857 — Laying the Atlantic Telegraph Cable from Ship to Shore, History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications.
- Web site: The Telegraph Field with transatlantic telegraph cable station - Valentia Island, Ireland - Anglo American Cable House. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20130621005034/http://www.thetelegraphfield.com/. 2013-06-21. 2013-06-21. 2020-03-07. Buchanan. Keith. Also known as "The Longitude Field". Prior to the transatlantic telegraph, American longitude measurements had a 2800feet uncertainty with respect to European longitudes. A temporary longitude observatory was built adjacent to the Foilhommerum Cable Station to facilitate synchronized longitude observations with Heart's Content, Newfoundland..
- News: Lucey . Ann . Valentia Island’s transatlantic cable to be put forward for Unesco World Heritage status . 1 June 2024 . The Irish Times . 21 July 2022.
- Web site: Transatlantic Cable Ensemble (Ireland) . UNESCO World Heritage Convention . 1 June 2024.
- Book: Hampton, Dan. 189. The flight : Charles Lindbergh's daring and immortal 1927 Transatlantic crossing. 2017. 978-0-06-246439-2. First. New York, NY. HarperCollins. 957504448.
- Stössel. Iwan. Williams. Edward A.. Higgs. Kenneth T.. 15 November 2016. Ichnology and depositional environment of the Middle Devonian Valentia Island tetrapod trackways, south-west Ireland. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. en. 462. 16–40. 10.1016/j.palaeo.2016.08.033. 2016PPP...462...16S. 0031-0182.
- Niedźwiedzki. Grzegorz. Szrek. Piotr. Narkiewicz. Katarzyna. Narkiewicz. Marek. Ahlberg. Per E.. January 2010. Tetrapod trackways from the early Middle Devonian period of Poland. Nature. en. 463. 7277. 43–48. 10.1038/nature08623. 20054388. 2010Natur.463...43N. 4428903. 1476-4687. Supposed trackways of very early tetrapods have been recorded from a number of localities in Europe and Australia. [...] Two large trackways from Valentia Island, Ireland, have been dated radiometrically to 385 million years ago.[...]Figure 5 Phylogenetic implications of tracks. [...]The bars are approximate measures of the uncertainty of dating. These are not statistical error bars but an attempt to reflect ongoing debate..
- Web site: Girl who spotted Irish walrus has ideas for names – depending on if it's a boy or a girl . independent . 14 March 2021 . 10 July 2021 . en.
- Web site: 29 April 1998. The FitzGerald (Knights of Kerry) Papers (MIC/639 and T/3075). dead. Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. https://web.archive.org/web/20070927205140/http://www.proni.gov.uk/records/private/fitzger.htm. 2007-09-27. 7 March 2020.
- Web site: Introduction to the FitzGerald (Knights of Kerry) Papers (T3075) . November 2007. 10. Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. en. 2020-03-07. He showed a keen interest in everything which had a practical bearing on the progress or prosperity of Ireland and, predictably, he was most co-operative in the establishment of the trans-Atlantic cable station at Valentia.. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20160902010754/https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/sites/default/files/publications/fitzgerald-t3075.pdf. 2 September 2016.
- Web site: Valentia Island. Condon. Des. 2006. Cromane Community Council. https://web.archive.org/web/20080521083448/http://cromane.net/valentia.htm. 2008-05-21. dead.
- Web site: Valentia Heritage Centre. Knightstown, Valentia Island, Co. Kerry, Ireland. https://web.archive.org/web/20070928185226/http://vhc.cablehistory.org/. 28 September 2007. 2020-03-07. live.
- Web site: S.I. No. 54/2012 – Roads Act 1993 (Classification of Regional Roads) Order 2012 . 28 Feb 2012 . Government of Ireland . 16 May 2016 .
- Web site: Conger Eel . Angling Ireland . 28 May 2024.
- Web site: Lesser Spotted Dogfish . Angling Ireland . 28 May 2024.
- 31905. Blackburn, Helen (1842–1903), campaigner for women's rights. Linda. Walker. 2004.
- 20913. O'Sullivan Beare, Philip (b. c.1590, d. in or after 1634). Toby. Barnard. 2004.
- Book: Mulvihill. Mary. Ingenious Ireland: A County-by-County Exploration of the Mysteries and Marvels of the Ingenious Irish. 2003. Simon and Schuster. Dublin. 0684020947. 397–398. 10 November 2014.
- Web site: Obituary: Captain The Lord Monteagle of Brandon. The Guards Magazine. 16 March 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20140903062226/http://guardsmagazine.com/obits_lordmonteagle.html. 2014-09-03. live.