Inver, An tInbhear, Co. Mayo

An tInbhear · Co. Mayo

A scatter of houses on Broadhaven Bay where an Armada ship went down and a 17th-century prophet foretold the railway.

Inver is not a village you stop in for the shops, because there are none. It is a Gaeltacht townland on the south shore of Broadhaven Bay, in the civil parish of Kilcommon and the old barony of Erris - blanket bog behind, the Atlantic in front, and a scatter of houses along a road that most maps barely bother with. The 2011 census put the population at 114. In 1841 it was 430. Like most of Erris, the place has spent two hundred years emptying.

What it has instead of amenities is history that runs deeper than its size. In the autumn of 1588 a ship of the Spanish Armada, the Santiago, was driven ashore off Inver Point with its mainmast already gone. The bay was a known shelter for the scattered Armada that September, and the survivors here joined the larger company of Don Alonso de Leyva as it made its doomed way along the north Mayo coast. Sixty years later, in 1648, the place produced Brian Rua Ua Cearbhain, the Prophet of Erris, whose sayings about iron-wheeled carriages bringing death are still told in the parish.

There is a church - St Patrick's, finished in 1936, with a stained-glass window attributed to the Earley studio in Dublin - a cemetery opened in 1969, and a former vocational school of 1958 that now serves as the community centre. There are no pubs, no restaurants, no hotels in Inver itself. The nearest of all of that is Belmullet, west along the coast, or Ballina the long way east. You come here for the bay, the bog light, and the weight of what happened on this shore.

Population

114 (2011 census)

Coords

54.2499° N, 9.8678° W

01 / 06

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The bay

On Broadhaven Bay in the Erris Gaeltacht, off the R314.

An tInbhear is the only official name - this is a Gaeltacht townland in the civil parish of Kilcommon, barony of Erris. The land runs down to the water near Inver Point. The 2011 census counted 114 people; in 1841 there were 430. Two centuries of leaving are written into the place.

Stories & lore → 02 The wreck

An Armada ship, the Santiago, went down off Inver Point in 1588.

Spanish ships used Broadhaven Bay as shelter that autumn, trading goods for information. The Santiago is remembered in local folklore as An Long Mhaol - the bare ship - driven in without its mainmast. The mast is said to be buried in a bog.

Stories & lore →

02 / 06

Stories & lore.

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

An Armada wreck off Inver Point, 1588

The Santiago and the bare ship

In the autumn of 1588 the scattered ships of the Spanish Armada came down the west coast of Ireland in ruins, and several foundered off north Mayo. One of them, the Santiago, was driven ashore off Inver Point on Broadhaven Bay, carrying a crew and, by some accounts, an Irish bishop. Broadhaven was a bay the Spanish knew - through that season their ships used it as shelter, exchanging goods for information with the local people. Inver remembers the wreck in folklore as An Long Mhaol, the bare or hornless ship, because she came in stripped of her mainmast, which is said to lie buried in a bog to this day. The survivors here threw in their lot with Don Alonso de Leyva, whose growing host of castaways crossed the Owenmore and seized the Barrett castles before its own end further north. Of all the Armada disasters on this coast, the one off Inver is the one the parish still tells.

Born at Inver, 1648 - he foretold the railway

Brian Rua, the Prophet of Erris

Brian Rua Ua Cearbhain was born at Inver, in the townland of Falrua, around 1648, and is remembered across Erris and Achill as the Prophet of Erris. The sayings attributed to him - the Tarngaireacht Bhriain Ruaidh - included that carriages with iron wheels would one day run north and south, that the stones on the roads would be talking, and that fire carriages on iron wheels would bring death. When the Achill railway opened, the prophecy found its grim echo: in 1894 the first train on the new line carried home the bodies of young Achill harvest workers drowned in Clew Bay, and in 1937 a line closing was reopened to bring back the dead of the Kirkintilloch bothy fire. The original papers of his prophecies were destroyed, by tradition burned by his own son in the heat of one of their quarrels. What survives is the telling, which has outlasted the documents by three centuries.

A 1936 church with Dublin glass

St Patrick's and the Earley window

St Patrick's, the Catholic church at Inver, was completed in 1936 to serve this corner of Kilcommon parish. It is a modest building for a small and scattered population, but it holds one thing worth stopping for: a stained-glass window attributed to Earley Studios of Dublin, the long-running ecclesiastical workshop that glazed churches the length of Ireland through the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In a townland with no shop and no pub, the window is the one piece of made beauty kept indoors. The cemetery nearby, opened in 1969, holds the more recent generations of a place that has buried far more than it now houses.

03 / 06

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

Broadhaven Bay shore There is no waymarked trail at Inver. What there is, is the shore of Broadhaven Bay below the houses and the open Erris bog behind - walk the lanes down toward Inver Point where the Santiago is said to have come in, and keep an eye on the tide and the weather, both of which change fast on this coast. Boots, not trainers. This is unmanaged country and you are responsible for yourself.

Open, informaldistance

As long as you liketime

The R314 coast road Inver sits on the great north Erris coast road, the R314, which runs from Ballina out through Killala, Ballycastle, Belderrig and Glenamoy before reaching this corner of Broadhaven Bay. It is one of the finest scenic drives in Mayo and a serious cycle. Inver is a quiet point along it rather than a destination at its end.

Drive or cycledistance

Half a daytime

04 / 06

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The bog greens up, the bay light sharpens, and the long Atlantic evenings begin. Quiet, with the worst of the winter weather behind.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

The best of it. Long days, the calmest the bay gets, and in early August the Inver Festival brings the parish together with music, kids' entertainment, and sheep and dog shows. Bring everything you need - services are in Belmullet.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

September on Broadhaven is the month the Armada came down this coast, and the light has the same hard clarity. Wind picks up. A fine time for the empty shore.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days and Atlantic weather straight off Broadhaven Bay. There is no shelter and nowhere open in Inver itself. Visit on a clear winter day for the bog light, but do not count on the weather.

◐ Mind yourself

05 / 06

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Expecting a village centre

Inver is a townland, not a street. There is no shop, no pub, no café, no hotel. The church, the community centre and the cemetery are the public buildings, and that is the whole of it. Come for the bay and the history, carry your own supplies, and stay in Belmullet.

Confusing it with Inver in Donegal

There is a better-known Inver on the south Donegal coast. This Inver is in Erris, north Mayo, on Broadhaven Bay. Different place, different county. Make sure the sat-nav agrees with you.

Getting there.

By car

Inver is on the R314 north Erris coast road. From Ballina it is roughly an hour and a half out via Killala, Ballycastle, Belderrig and Glenamoy. From Belmullet it is a shorter run east and north toward Broadhaven Bay. The roads are narrow and the last stretches are quiet.

By bus

There is no direct mainline service to Inver. Bus Eireann route 446 (Ballina to Blacksod via Belmullet) serves the wider Erris area; TFI Local Link runs a Kilcommon Parish service that stops at Inver and Glengad, on Tuesdays only. Plan around it - this is not a turn-up-and-go corner of the country.

By train

The nearest railway station is Ballina, on the line to Manulla Junction and the Dublin services. From Ballina you are still a long drive west to Inver - there is no rail anywhere near Erris.

Next on the tour

Co. Mayo

Pullathomas

The nearest neighbour, a scatter of houses further round the bog. Inver Point and the Armada wreck are spoken of as off Pullathomas too - the same stretch of shore.

Co. Mayo

Glenamoy

East along the R314 in the same Kilcommon parish. A bog-country crossroads on the great north Erris coast road.

Co. Mayo

Belmullet

The capital of the Mullet and the nearest real town - shops, pubs, fuel, beds. Where you base yourself if you are exploring this corner of Erris.

Co. Mayo

Belderrig

Further east on the R314, a tiny harbour village under the north Mayo cliffs, near the Céide Fields. A good stop on the coast road back toward Ballina.

Co. Mayo

Carrowteige

South across the bog to the cliffs, where Irish and the Atlantic edge are the whole of it.