| www.divewestireland.com Boat charter for Diving, Sea angling and Island tours |
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Email: seanlavelle@eircom.net
Phone:
00353 (0)86 8365983 The
only island off Belmullet that has black rabbits. |
Duvillaun Island
Cove is 300m in length and 50 Meter
wide . 10m deep at the inside and runs out
to 30m the wall on the west side is the best
with anemone of all different colour
wallpapered across ifs full face. Visibility
is usually 10m plus here. Nudibranchia
appear on the anemone at different times. At
the mouth of the cove lots of new boulder
have fallen down every year after the winter
storms.
Dive 2
About the same size and dept as
dive1 but stones on the inside and 6m
high out crops
which are very smooth. Got about 20M
vis here march 2002 lots of wrasse swimming
around chasing food or just playing.
Duvillaun Island
Walls along here go from about 35M to the
surface, Lots of cracks and rocks to check
out the inhabitants. Lots of Lobster, Spider
crabs and some Congers to be found.
Dive 3 This is a rock about 50 M from the island. You have to get the tide right on this one 6 knots going through here. Lots
of boulder on the bottom abundance of fish
swimming around and anemone of all different
colour on the wall.
 The Duvillaun Islands are also of ornithological interest for their colonies of breeding seabirds and wintering geese. They hold the second largest colony of Great Black-backed Gull in Ireland (217 pairs during 1985-87). Other nationally important colonies include Cormorant (185 pairs), Shag (30-50 pairs), Fulmar (500 pairs), Common Gull (20-50 pairs) and Black Guillemot (80 individuals). Large numbers of Herring Gull are also found (300-400 pairs) (all figures are from 1981). Storm Petrel occur on Duvillaun More (14 colonies in 1966, total numbers are unknown, but probably at least 100 pairs). The islands are also used as a wintering ground for internationally important numbers of Barnacle Geese (420-450 individuals in 1988), which interchange with the largest Irish population on the nearby Inishkea Islands. The island was abandoned after the turn of the century. In the 1821 census there were 19 living on the island, and a community existed here up to at least 1917. The ecclesiastical remains are of a small anchorite settlement being an eremitic establishment of the 6th to 10th centuries. The square ruin is a killeen, with childrens' graveyard. A carved flat stone depicts a Greek crucifixion. Well worth the visit. The Duvillaun Islands comprise a group of
marine islands, rocks and reefs 3 km off the
southern tip of the Mullet Peninsula, Co.
Mayo. The main islands included are
Duvillaun More, Duvillaun Beg, Turduvillaun,
Gaghta Island, Keely Island and Leamareha
Island. Belmullet has lots of Island to dive and explore |
 
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