An Carraig Aonair, (The Isolated or Solitary Rock) that is the Fastnet Rock, stands alone in the cold, turbulent Atlantic waters: a sentinel; a first-and-last landmark; the Irish emigrant’s teardrop.

The Fastnet Rock is a pinnacle of folded and fractured Silurian slate. In times past it was considered mysterious as well as dangerous to approach. According to legend, at the summer equinox, the rock would sail off to visit its neighbours; the Bull, Cow, Calf and Heifer Rocks, off Dursey, presumably when nobody was looking.

The Fastnet Rock is, in reality, two-and-a-half rocks: Fastnet, Little Fastnet (in Irish gabhailín = fork or crotch), and a half-tide reef; four and a half miles southwest of Cape Clear; nine miles from the mainland Cork coast.

Mention the Fastnet and most everyone will immediately talk of the Lighthouse constructed on the Fastnet, one of West Cork’s standout landmarks. The lighthouse is undoubtedly an outstanding engineering achievement of which there are no equivalents in the country, not for the structure alone but its location: the Fastnet Rock.

Every lighthouse has a distinctive flash. The Fastnet lighthouse flashes, every five seconds, day and night, 365 days a year, every year since 1904. A pleasantly reassuring feature to those on land who can see it. How much more reassuring it must be for those at sea, particularly in times past before modern communications and aids to navigation such as GPS.

If you would like to know more about the Fastnet Rock and Lighthouse: www.buythebook.ie/this-is-the-mizen/