A brief history of Achill Island. The Deserted Village at Slievemore. Kildownet (Chilldamhnait) Castle, which is located next to the church and graveyard, is said to have been built by the ancestors of the 16th century pirate known as the "Queen of Connaught" Granuaile (Grace O Malley). Her 13th great grandson in descent is Jeremy Altamont, 11th Marquess of Sligo, of Westport House.
Photos of Achill taken by
monasettea Galway amateur photographer, in September 2002.
Alexander Hector, a Scot, started a commercial salmon fishing industry on Achill in 1855.
Paul Henry (1876-1958), a Belfast born artist, lived on Achill Island from 1910 to 1919.
Heinrich Boll, the Nobel Prize winning novelist, was a regular visitor to Achill Island in the west of Ireland from the late 1950s to the 1970s.
Heinrich Boll stayed at a cottage near Dugort on the north of Achill Island, now known as Heinrich Boll's Cottage and provided as a retreat for other artists and writers on Achill Island. Click here to read about Henrich's time on Achill. Another author who regularly visited Achill was the English novelist
Graham Greene. He went there in the late 1940s and stayed in the Achill cottage of his lover, wealthy American society hostess Catherine Walston. Graham Greene finished several novels on Achill Island, including Heart of the Matter and The Fallen Idol. Click to read about his visits.
