Visit Valentia Island.

Valentia Island is an Irish island off the Kerry coast, connected by a bridge to the village of Portmagee. The island is home to 650 people, who live mainly from tourism, livestock farming and fishing… They live in houses with colorful facades, whose tranquility has become a veritable art of living… Don’t wait any longer to discover this island that’s a little out of the ordinary: the scenery is fabulous, and the locals are extremely hospitable!

History of Valentia Island

Tetrapod footprints dating back nearly 400 million years…

Valentia Island is one of the places where the oldest known footprints in Earth’s history were found. The footprints were left by a Tetraprode in slate, and date back almost 400 million years. They were formed when Valentia was not yet an island near Ireland, but a swamp at the foot of the Caledonian Mountains in Scotland. It was only much later that traces of human life were also found on the island… These date back to the Mesolithic period, and have been identified in peat bogs (peat is a wonderful preservative).

Valentia Island establishes first international communications network

In the early 1800s, Valentia Island decided to become a telegraph communication station… Considered to be one of the closest points to Newfoundland (3220km between the 2 points), Valentia decided to host a transatlantic submarine telegraph cable linking Ireland to Canada.

The first message was sent in 1866 by Queen Victoria to U.S. President James Buchanan. On the strength of this initial success, submarine telegraph cable communications continued until 1966, when the activity ceased, replaced by satellite communications…

Despite this interruption in service, Valentia Island commissioned the construction of a radio telegraph station to monitor ships sailing the Atlantic Ocean… This station was built in 1914 on Geokan Mountain, and is still in operation today…

Visit Valentia Island

An island of exceptional landscapes

Valentia Island is a small island: measuring 11.2km and 3.2km in width, you’ll quickly come full circle. Accessible by a bridge linking the village of Portmagee to the island, you can easily reach Valentia, and visit it freely, without having to worry about the timetable of any shuttle linking the island to Ireland…

Valentia is the ideal place to go hiking… Whether you explore the town center or the wilderness, there’s no shortage of things to do! Among Valentia’s must-see spots, we recommend a visit to Bray Point, in the south-west of the island…

It boasts a magnificent watchtower, built in the 16th century. It enabled the 2,200 or so inhabitants living on the island at the time to keep an eye on the Atlantic and its ships. From here, you can enjoy an absolutely exceptional panorama of the ocean and the Skellig Islands, not far from the Dingle Peninsula…