“ Gale warnings for sea areas Fastnet, Shannon, Rockall”—we all know the familiar phrase. But where is Fastnet, and what is it? It is a tiny lump of rock set in the Atlantic four miles beyond Cape Clear Island, which would otherwise be the southern tip of Ireland. Like “The Cape”, as the island is known locally, it was once part of a ridge of hills running south-west from somewhere near Skibbereen; but the land has sunk and been broken into a line of islands forming the south side of one of the “rias bays” of west Cork and Kerry.