Rick Steves' Europe: Finding good solitude on Great Blasket Island

Great Blasket Island is portrayed as Ireland’s best option for those seeking solitude, while also emphasizing how difficult it remains to reach. The island, the largest in The Blaskets group off the Dingle Peninsula, is associated with the remains of a once-vibrant Gaelic community; at its peak it housed about 180 people. Life there was hard: treeless and exposed to the elements, residents cut peat for fuel and relied on fish from surrounding waters, with World War I occasionally providing cargo washed ashore from ships sunk by U-boats. In the 1950s, the Irish government relocated the last elderly residents because the crossing could not guarantee services in emergencies. Today, visitors endure a rough Atlantic crossing where boats cannot dock directly, requiring a skiff landing on a rope-lined rocky “pier.” Access is typically via the Great Blasket Island Experience from Dingle Town or the Blasket Ferry from Dunquin, where the Blasket Centre museum documents the island’s culture and history.