Dolphin & Whale Watching (4hrs) + Blasket Island Landing (3hrs)

Our tour boat leaves from Ventry pier at 10am. We head out into Dingle Bay towards the Blasket Islands keeping an eye out for common dolphins and Minke whales along the way. We also sometimes see bottlenose dolphins, Risso's dolphins and basking shark (in season). We arrive at Great Blasket Island at approx. 11 am and tie up to our mooring off the White Strand. We disembark passengers by licenced Zodiac dinghy / tender to the Great Blasket Island slipway. Passengers have 3 hrs. to enjoy the island either hiking the loop walk (1.5 hrs), swimming in the pristine waters off the beach or just relaxing and watching the seals off the rocks. There is a small island tea room and access to toilets. We pick up passengers again at 2pm and continue on our marine eco tour around some of the outer Blasket islands where you can see puffins, lots of other sea birds, fantastic landscapes and seascapes and hopefully pods of dolphins and the occasional humpback whale as they migrate past our shores.

Cathedral Rocks on Inish na Bró, which is one of the outer Blasket islands, is a fantastical rock formation on the north east promontory of the island and is so called because it looks like a vast, naturally- formed gothic cathedral with "windows", "doors" and buttresses. You can wonder at the power of the ocean and sea that carved out this imposing natural structure in winter storms, as you pass close underneath

In order to see puffins on the Blaskets you have to travel out to the outer islands like Inishvickilaun and inish na Bró as there is too much (marine) traffic off the main island of the Great Blasket. The puffins can be seen near Inishvickillaun as they congregate in "rafts" on the water. They are smaller than you expect but their bright coloured beaks are apparent when viewed through binoculars. As you pass by the cliffs on Inishvickillaun look up towards the tops of the cliffs and you might see some of the native red deer stags silhouetted against the skyline!

Depending on the course that your skipper decides to do for the day we may travel northabout towards Inish Tuaisceart which is another of the (7) Blasket Islands. It is best viewed from a distance from a point just off Slea head and it is then very obvious why the island is more commonly known as "The Dead Man" and / or "The Sleeping Giant". If you have a good imagination it looks very like old Abe [Lincoln]!

Tearaght is the most westerly of the Blasket Islands and has a lighthouse on the westerly end which is the most westerly lighthouse in (mainland) Europe. Due west from here is St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada which is the same N latitude as the Blaskets. The tour boat only goes around Tearaght island in fine settled weather and light swell, which is rare around the Blaskets.