Mar.. 1891. 
THE ARAN ISLANDS. 
49 
THE ARAN ISLANDS.* 
BY PHILIP B. MASON, F.L.S., F.Z.S., ETC. 
With Illustrations from Photographs by Messrs. J. E. Nowers 
and J. G. Wells. 
These islands lie off the west coast of Ireland, and are 
practically in the Atlantic Ocean, although within sight of 
the coasts of Connemara and Clare. Their nearest point is 
28 miles from the quay of Galway, and they lie off the 
entrance of the fjord which is now called Galway Bay, or 
Loch Lurgan. Aran is supposed at one time to have been 
connected on the north with Connemara, on the south-east 
with Clare, and to have thus formed the boundary of the 
lake. 
They are three in number, and it is supposed derived 
their name from the Irish word ara, “ a kidney,” which the 
great island remotely resembles in shape. Their names are 
Ara Mor, the Great Island ; Innis Maan, the Middle Island; 
and Innis Heer, the Eastern Island (this is usually called the 
Southern Island). The length of the great island is nine miles, 
of the middle three, and of the southern one 2J miles. They 
contain about 11,288 acres, only 700 of which are produc¬ 
tive, and support more than 8,000 people, that is, support 
them with the help of an occasional relief fund, one of which 
funds was being administered during my last visit there. I 
said that only 700 acres are productive, and while approaching 
the islands one wonders how they can support any living 
thing, for they present the appearance of undulating stone- 
fields. 
The islands are entirely composed of metamorphosed lime¬ 
stone, and the rainfall is excessive from the fact that tliev 
are the first lands struck by the westerly winds which have 
swept over the Atlantic, and so become saturated with 
moisture, the result being that the surface of the limestone 
is dissolved away with such rapidity that no spore of moss or 
other green thing can find lodgment for a sufficient time to 
germinate. This barren appearance is intensified by the fact 
that the numerous divisions between the fields are loose stone 
walls, like those of North Derbyshire. 
On walking over these fields, however, we find that the 
limestone is extensively fissured, the fissures running more or 
less in the same direction ; and these fissures having been 
deepened by the solvent action of water to the depth of several 
* Extracted from a paper read before the Burton-upon-Trent 
Archaeological and Natural History Society, November 13th, 1890. 
