Achill Island

The largest of the Irish isles at about 148 square kilometres, off the Mayo coast, with 2,345 people counted in 2022 and a bridge to the mainland since 1887. Keel, Dooagh, Dooega, Dooniver and Dugort are the main villages besides Achill Sound, and peat bogs cover much of the ground between them. Roughly half the island lies in the Gaeltacht, though most people speak English day to day. It has been occupied since at least the Neolithic, when the climate was warmer and drier and dense woodland stood where the blanket bog is now.