ARAN ISLANDS, or

See also:

• SOUTH
• SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

SOUTH ARAN  , three islands lying across Galway Bay, on the west coast of Ireland, in a south-easterly direction, forming a kind of natural breakwater . They belong to the county Galway, and their population in Igor was 2863 . They are called respectively—beginning with the northernmost —Inishmore (or Aranmore), the Great Island; Inishmaan, the Middle Island; and Inisheer, the Eastern Island . The first has an elevation of 354 ft., the second of 259, and the third of 202 . Their formation is carboniferous limestone . These islands are remarkable for a number of architectural remains of a very early date . In Inishmore there stand, on a cliff 220 ft. high, large remains of a circular cyclopean tower, called Dun-Aengus, ascribed to the Fir-bolg or Belgae; or, individually, to the first of three brothers, Aengus, Conchobar and Nil, who reached Aran Islands from Scotland in the 1st century A.D . There are seven other similar structures in the group . Inishmore also bears the name of Aran-na-naomh, Aran-of-the-Saints, from the number of religious recluses who took up their abode in it, and gave a celebrity to the holy wells, altars and shrines, to which many are still attracted . No less, indeed, than twenty buildings of ecclesiastical or monastic character have been enumerated in the three islands . On Inishmore are remains of the abbey of Killenda . Christianity was introduced in the 5th century, and Aran soon became one of the most famous island-resorts of religious teachers and ascetics .

The extraordinary fame of the

foundations here has been inferred from the inscription " VII . Romani " on a stone in the church Teampull Brecain on Inishmore, attributed to disciples from Rome . The total area of the islands is 11,579 acres . The Congested Districts Board made many efforts to improve the condition of the inhabitants, especially by introducing better methods of fishing . A curing station is established at Killeany, the harbour of Inishmore .