Inishdooey (Inis Dúiche, Oileán Dúiche) is the second island out to sea from Magheroarty Pier and forms part of an enchainment of the four islands collectively known as the Donegal Archipelago. These four Islands comprises of Inishbofin, Inishdooey, Inishbeg and Tory Island in ascending order from mainland Donegal. Inishdooey is approx 95 acres in size and lives approximately 5 kilometres west of the Donegal Mainland.
A visit to the present-day island will give you a real feeling of living in a very isolated location with outstanding views from the front door of the monk's house looking out over the once arable fields which extend to the foreshore. The once ploughed and sown fields around the ruins have returned to a much more natural state with several hundred pairs of ground-nesting fulmars and gannets calling these fields their home.
The name Inishdooey comes from an anglicised version of Saint Dubhthach, a 6th-century saint who was the driving force behind getting the monastery built on the island. All that remains of the monks’ settlement and the monastery on the island are the ruins of the stone wall buildings and the small stone church with its distinctive gable end altar window surround. Ground nesting Fulmars and a host of other sea birds have reclaimed the previously cultivated fields around this once inhabited monastery.
Landing on the island is on the rocky shingle beach in the sheltered bay (Grid Ref B895383) on the south-west coast of the island. In south to west motion, there are two very sheltered bays on the east coast of the island. (Grid Ref B898381) Both of these bays require greasy wet scrambling to gain the clifftops and walk across the island.
A visit to the island by sea kayak to its north-west tip will reveal a labyrinth of deep-sea caves, arches and paddle through tunnels. On the south-east tip of the island lives the small flat-topped sea stack called Doon Beg guarded by a large seal family living on the skerries at its base.
