Cows, Birds, Wallabies and yet more Birds.

Every once and a while MV members visit offshore islands. In 2013 Wicklore put together a visit to Lambay.

Lambay is the largest island off the east coast of Ireland and is about 2.5 square kilometres in size, and rises to 126 metres elevation.

Lambay is owned by the Baring family and is currently occupied by Alex Baring (Lord Revelstoke). His ancestor Cecil Baring, 3rd Lord Revelstoke, bought the island in 1904.
Baring had been working in the US when he fell in love with the wife of one of his co-directors, Maude Louise Lorillard.She divorced her husband and married Baring. He bought the island for £5,250 as a place to escape to. He commissioned Sir Edwin Lutyens to convert a late 16th-century fort with battlemented gables, into a romantic castle for them.
The castle is at times open to visit however this was not possible at the time we were on the island.

The island was important in the Neolithic period in Ireland as a ground stone axe quarrying and production site. Two outcrops of andesite, ( Lambay porphyry), were utilised. The quarry site is unusual in Ireland for being the only Neolithic stone axe quarry with evidence for all stages of production, from quarrying to final polishing. You will pass this quarry on the way to the islands summit.

The ancient Greek writers Pliny and Ptolemy knew about the island and referred to it as Limnus or Limni. Sitric, a Danish King of Dublin, granted Lambay to Christ Church Cathedral. A later archbishop gave the rents of the island to the nuns of Grace Dieu. He also gave the tithes of the Lambay rabbits to the nuns and at that time the rabbit taxes were worth 100 shillings a year.

In 1467 the Earl of Worcester was given Lambay to build a fortress for England's protection against the Spaniards, French and Scots. Worcester paid the Archbishop of Dublin 40 shillings per annum and though he had a licence to build a castle on Lambay it is not certain that it was actually built.

In the Williamite war in Ireland, the island was used as an internment camp for Irish soldiers. More than 1000 of them were imprisoned there after the Battle of Aughrim in 1691.
In 1805, the leasehold of Lambay was inherited by Sir William Wolseley, and in 1814 it was acquired by the Talbot family of Malahide.

In 1860 the existing farmers were removed and replaced with English and Scottish tenants.
Count James Consedine bought Lambay in 1888, developing the island for hunting before selling to the Barings in 1904.

The island supports one of the largest and most important seabird colonies in Ireland, withCommon Guillemots, Kittiwakes, Razorbills, Herring Gulls, as well as smaller numbers of Puffins, Manx Shearwaters, Fulmars, and other species.
Among the mammals of the island are grey seals (Ireland's only east coast colony) and introduced fallow deer. As well as a herd of farmed cattle, there are also wild wallabies on the island. The wallabies were let loose on the island in the 1980’s from Dublin Zoo. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/1370/comment/15806/

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Your boat awaits

Came across this advert for Skerries Sea Tours in the Summer 2014 issue of Wings magazine from BirdWatch Ireland. If a party of fellow walkers can be organised then a trip to Lambay becomes more of a possibility! Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/1370/comment/16064/

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Lambay and Rockabill

First time out on Lambay last Friday on a gorgeous day on a college reunion. Went with Skerries Sea Tours who also provided a guide around the island. Great two hours for anybody into geology, seabird life and marine stuff - like the ship out of Liverpool to Australia that went aground back in the 1850's with 300 losing their lives. Seems the very inexperienced captain thought they were off France! Many of those who died are buried in a mass grave on the island. After the Lambay walk (well covered in earlier posts) , went on to go around Rockabill lighthouse off Skerries - again great for bird and seal watchers. Great day out but maybe only in good weather. High point on Lambay at 124m not going to challenge anybody but hey it's on the list to be chalked off. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/1370/comment/18629/

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