Inchbofin

Inchbofin, the 'island of the white cow', lies in the eastern arm of Lough Ree off the Westmeath shore. Saint Ríoch is said to have founded a monastery here around 530, and the annals name its abbots in the 8th century and record raids by Munster fleets in 1016 and 1089. Two church ruins survive: near the north-east point, a 12th-century church with a nave, transept and sacristy, a Romanesque window and a carved bishop's head, and to the south a smaller church of the 12th or 13th century. Families farmed the island into the 20th century; in the hard winter of 2009, when the lake froze, the Air Corps flew in fodder for the last farmer's cattle. We have no source for a landing place, so treat Inchbofin as a sight from the water unless you know the approach.