Is there a mythical, vanishing island off the western coast of Ireland?

Certain folklore remembers the island of Hy-Brasil off the west coast

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KERRY O'SHEA,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

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The mythical island of Hybrasil off the coast of Ireland

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One of the most famous visits to Hy-Brasil was in 1674 by Captain John Nisbet of Killybegs, Co. Donegal, Ireland. He and his crew were in familiar waters west of Ireland, when a fog came up.

As the fog lifted, the ship was dangerously close to rocks. While getting their bearings, the ship anchored in three fathoms of water, and four crew members rowed ashore to visit Hy-Brasil. They spent a day on the island, and returned with silver and gold given to them by an old man who lived there.

The last supposed sighting was in 1872 by Roderick O’Flaherty. In ‘A Chorographical Description of West or H-Iar Connaught (1684),’ he tells us of the reported “old man” by saying “There is now living, Morogh O’Ley, who immagins he was himself personally on O’Brasil for two days, and saw out of it the iles of Aran, Golamhead, Irrosbeghill, and other places of the west continent he was acquainted with.”

The last documented sighting of Hy-Brasil was in 1872, when author T. J. Westropp and several companions saw the island appear and then vanish. This was Mr. Westropp’s third view of Hy-Brasil, but on this voyage he had brought his mother and some friends to verify the Island’s existence.

Whether or not the island exists - or ever existed - is still hard to tell, but the mythical and real accounts of the Island are hard to deny. What do you think about Hy-Brasil?

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