Remote and mystical Inishmurray Island, off the County Sligo coast, was a secluded retreat for St Molaise who founded a monastery here in the 6th century.
Inishmurray Island is an early Christian site and now a wildlife sanctuary. The last of the islanders moved to the mainland in 1957 and today Inishmurray is a wildlife sanctuary of national importance for both breeding and wintering birds.
Significant populations of arctic tern and common tern, shag, herring gull, great black backed gull and eider duck make the island their home as do numerous pairs of black guillemot, barnacle geese, storm petrels, common gull, lesser black backed gull and fulmar.
The well preserved remains of the monastic settlement of St Molaise and the island's village can also be seen, including mysterious cursing stones, altars and beehive cells.
