Mutton Island re-visited by Bill Scanlan
Mutton Island lies in Galway Bay, just off Salthill near the entrance to Galway Harbour. A lighthouse was established on the island in 1817-a small single-keeper station. Bill Scanlan lived at the lighthouse as a boy when his father was Principal Keeper there from 1943 to 1951. The lighthouse was automated and converted to unwatched in 1958.
Following a review of navigational requirements the buoyage in the approaches to Galway was improved and Mutton Island Lighthouse was expunged on 13 December 1977. Now a sewage treatment plant is being built on the island.
I was fortunate in being invited to visit Mutton Island by Jim Higgins, the Galway Heritage Officer, and Matt Crehan who is in charge of the building of the sewage treatment plant on the island.
Provided sufficient funding is available, it is proposed to make a video of the lighthouse enclosure and to restore to some extent the tower, house, and outbuildings. These are all now in very poor repair.
Driving to Mutton Island on the causeway, having first donned a hard hat, fluorescent jackets, and steel toe capped boots, was a novel experience.
The western end of the island and part of the southern shore are now a mass of rocks, imported from Norway, which are in place as armouring or a sea defence system. The eastern shore and part of the northern shore are largely intact, and the landing is still in place. However, the boundary walls are virtually gone and little remains to suggest the small, well maintained, orderly establishment it once was.
Approaching the tower I said to the engineer-'You have, of course, found the benchmark?' 'Benchmark,' he exclaimed, 'where?' There it was at the base of the tower, now covered by grass and weeds. Needless to say the engineer was delighted to see it as they had been using one a considerable distance away, on the mainland.
Nostalgia would best describe my feelings on approaching the house where I had lived as a boy almost sixty years ago, and as a Supernumerary Assistant Keeper fifty years ago. It is a virtual ruin, due largely to roof damage and the ingress of wind and rain. In the office, a broken chest of drawers bore the stencilled legend Mutton Isld. cil 1936. All that remains of the sundial is the lead base to which the dial itself was fixed.
There were time, not tide, constraints on our visit. As soon as I arrived, however, I went straight to the D. Hawkins cut into the flat face of the rock, facing the sea inlet in front of the house. This must have been carved almost one hundred years ago, if not longer. Daniel Hawkins, Lightkeeper Number 255, was a contemporary of my father's but it could be Daniel Hawkins, Lightkeeper Number 11 who joined the Service in 1864 or it could have been the son of a Keeper growing up on the island. Ted, Betty, Tony, or Mary may know who this particular D. Hawkins was: their father, perhaps.
My brother's name, J. Scanlan, was cut into a rock on the Swan's Island. Unfortunately I did not have time to see if it was still discernible. I will, I hope, have another opportunity.
This little island has a wealth of stories and anecdotal information associated with it. This, on reflection, applies to all our lighthouses. It would be a pity if they were lost to posterity.