Writer's Tory island tour

30 September 2008 -

The natural beauty of Tory island has been noted by one writer, who recently went there with artist Norman Ackroyd to begin a possible collaboration.

Author Robert Macfarlane, writing in the Telegraph, travelled to the island, which is part of the province of Ulster and discovered some of the nature in Northern Ireland including dolphins, gannets and eels.

Describing the island's north coast, Mr Macfarlane said: "[It] is a wave-smashed theatre of pink and white granite: echoey sea caves, 200 ft rock-stacks and bird-filled zawns."

Not content with just viewing the dolphins in the area, the author decided to enter the water and frolic with the creature along with a labrador which was also swimming.

Visitors to Northern Ireland could consider taking a boat to Tory island where they could see dolphins and other examples of natural beauty.

Robert Macfarlane is a travel writer, whose first book Mountains of the Mind: A History of a Fascination, won the Guardian First Book Award in 2003, according to the Emmanuel College, Cambridge.