The Aran Islands are a byword for harsh, unforgiving landscape, and their Irish-speaking people have always epitomized hardy self-reliance. Things are changing fast under the influence of tourism and modern amenities, yet there is a storing thread of a way of life ling passed into history elsewhere in Ireland.

As the capital island, Inishmore has a defined port village, Kilronan, and gets almost all the visitors, many of whom leave with one of the trademark fishermen’s sweaters still made on the islands. Minibuses offer whistle-stop tours on the island; pony traps do the same thing at a more leisurely pace.

The chief attraction is undoubtedly Dunaengus, the Fort of King Aengus, which stands two-thirds of the way up the south coast of Inishmore – a mighty semicircular stone stronghold some 2,000 years old, breathtakingly sited on the brink of a 91-metre cliff. A cunning chevaux-de-frise was set up to guard it from onrushing enemies.