Achill

Achill, or 'Eagle' Isle, off the west coast of Ireland, is reckoned within the county of Mayo. It is 15 miles long by 12 miles broad, and has a very irregular coast-line. It has a wild and desolate appearance; most of the surface is boggy; of the 51,500 acres which the island contains, not 500 are cultivated. There are three villages in Achill, and a number of hovels or huts scattered over its barren moors, sometimes in small clusters, forming hamlets, but so wretched as hardly to be fit for beasts. Achill rises towards the north and west coast, where the mountains attain an elevation of 2000 feet. One of them, Achill Head, composed, like the rest of the island, wholly of mica-slate, presents towards the sea a sheer precipice from its peak to its base, a height of 2192 feet. There is a mission-station in the island. The population—4000 in 1851—amounted in 1891 to 6235.