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SCATTERY ISLAND lies about a mile offshore from Kilrush in the exposed Shannon Estuary. It was last inhabited in the late 1970s, and, as you land, you'll notice that the quay before you is dotted with overgrown derelict cottages. Walking up the lanes, spongy with moss and bracken, you disturb the burrows the island is riddled with, and rabbits pop out madly all over the place. St Senan founded a monastery here in the sixth century, and at one time there were seven monastic settlements. The community suffered greatly from Viking raids, but there are still the remains of several churches dating from between the ninth and the fifteenth centuries. Wherever you wander on Scattery, you feel as though you're stepping back into a timeless past, a mythical world protected by its isolation in the Shannon estuary. But Scattery's most impressive feature has to be the round tower , perfect in form, the stone made a warm mustardy yellow by the lichen that covers it. Unusually for a round tower, the doorway here is at ground level, as opposed to the more typical high-up entrances reached by a ladder that could be withdrawn to make the tower impregnable.
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