Rerrin
An Rinn

The Béara / Bear Island
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An Rinn · Co. Cork

Bear Island's only settlement. A British coastal fort, a handful of houses, and the Atlantic on three sides.

Rerrin is the main settlement on Bear Island — Oileán Béara — in Bantry Bay off the Béara Peninsula. Getting here requires a ferry from Castletownbere, a 15-minute crossing. The island has a permanent population of around 80 people, a primary school, a pub, and the ruins of a substantial British coastal defence fort.

The fort was built in the 1860s and extended during both World Wars — Ireland's neutrality in WWII made its occupation complicated, and the British held onto Treaty Ports including Bear Island until 1938. The gun emplacements, barracks buildings and tunnels are explorable, and the views from the top of the island toward the Béara mountains and Bantry Bay are worth every step of the climb.

Population

~80

Coords

51.6330° N, 9.8780° W

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Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

British military until 1938

The Treaty Port

Bear Island was one of three Irish Treaty Ports — Berehaven, Cobh and Lough Swilly — retained by Britain under the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty. De Valera negotiated their return in 1938. Churchill called it a mistake when war came the following year. The island's military infrastructure dates from this period: Martello towers, gun batteries, barracks, and tunnels cut into the hillside.