| Travelling to Bofin, even before disembarking from the boat,
the visitor's curiosity is aroused by a formidable stone fort to the right of the island's
sheltered harbour. Rising straight up from the rock, the fort, which seems to be part of
the cliff face, was originally built by a Spanish pirate, according to some local stories.
There's no historic record of this but, during the Cromwellian invasion of the 1650s, it
was used for defence purposes, and is known as Cromwell's Barracks. The section of Bofin on which the fort is located is cut off from the main body of the island by tides for most of the time and can be reached on foot only at low tide. This is a bracing walk, over hills and across fields, and the views are spectacular. |
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| Since earliest times, Bofin has attracted settlers and, in the
7th century, St Colman and his monks left England to establish a monastic settlement
there, following a schism between the Celtic and Roman churches. A medieval church now
stands on the site of that old monastery. On Bofin, it is important to leave the road behind, otherwise it's possible to miss its extraordinary geographical features, such as the blow holes in the west and the sand dunes in the east. |
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| There are also stark reminders of the island's relationship
with the sea and its dependency on fishing. A John Behan sculpture in the grounds of
Bofin's modern church commemorates local people drowned off the island in living memory -
more than 70 names. Then, on the windswept, barren, west quarter, there's another Behan
cross, which recalls two students from Kansas who drowned on a visit during the 1970s. |
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| Most recently, a memorial plaque was unveiled to three men who
drowned in 1949 while crossing from Bofin to the nearby island of Inishark. The bodies of
two were never found. Inishark which was even
more isolated than Bofin in the days before improved transport, was later depopulated, and
the islanders moved to the nearby mainland. Margaret
Day remembers many of those tragedies. As the island nurse from the 1950s to the
1980s, she was involved in all aspects of island life, but she also had a strong
entrepreneurial streak which led her to promote Bofin as a tourist destination. |
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| Among the first people to carry tourists to Inishbofin was the
poet, Richard Murphy, whose family came from Cleggan, where he himself lived for many
years. Murphy, who wrote many poems about Bofin, owned a Galway hooker, the Ave Maria, which he used to bring his visitors on trips around the bay. Bofin was a regular port of call. On one trip, he brought the poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, who had tea in Day's. "We had some magnificent lilies growing outside the hotel at the time, and I remember Sylvia Plath refused to leave without taking a bulb, which I was more than happy to give her " Mrs Day recalls.Mindful that Bofin's quiet ways and lack of man-made diversions -might not appeal to everyone, Mrs Day targeted tourists carrefully, appealing especially to English visitors. |
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| "I put an
ad in The observer a couple of times. It ran something like: "Pure Boredom -
Nothing to Do. Just Peace and Quiet, Sandy beaches, Shells, Crystal Clear Water, Good
Food, Excellent Seafood". They came in their droves." Today, when it rains heavily enough to prohibit walking, there are few greater pleasures in life than to sit in front of the crackling fire in Day's, reading or chatting. The comfort almost makes rain bearable. It rains quite a bit on Bofin, so for people with families
it's advisable to bring lots of games and books, as well as gear for outside activities. |
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