A young couple has exchanged their jet set -lifestyle for the new life on a remote Irish island – where they will be without electricity and running water for six months.
Great Blasket Island, located a mile of the Dingle peninsula in Kerry, is the largest island of the most western archipelago in Europe and has no permanent inhabitants.
Now, newlywed Camille Rosenfeld, from Minnesota in the US, and James Hayes, from Ralee in Co Kerry, will lead a simple lives from 1 April to 31 September as caregivers on the rough island.
James, who worked as an architect in London, met his wife in 2021 at the Burren, a wild landscape in Co Clare.
The love of the couple for nature saw them dealing with Inis Maving the Aran Islands, and since they dreamed to take the job on Great Blasket.
They married in Boston and moved back to Ireland last year, but said they spent a lot of their relationship with travel back and forth and looking forward to staying for a while and a different pace of life.
“I think both Camille and I feel that we have lived our lives in aircraft traveling and back to the US and from suitcases without being known for the past three years and longer,” James said.
Camille added: “It will offer time to take stock, to immerse ourselves in island life and start the next chapter or the new book of life together in one place.”
Newlywed Camille Rosenfeld, from Minnesota in the US, and James Hayes, from Ralee in Co Kerry, will lead a simple life as carers on the rugged island
Great Blasket is the most important island in the Blasket archipelago and is the home of a large gray seal colony
The ruins of abandoned stone houses can be seen on the remote island, a mile off the coast of Dingle, Co Kerry
“We are just very comfortable to feel uncomfortable,” said Camille, who has never been on the island, about their decision to change drastic life
Great Blasket was inhabited by an Irish -speaking fishing community until 1953, when the few stone houses were left on it.
The current owners of the few remaining homes that live in Dingle and rent various caregivers to lead them every season.
Billy O'Connor, whose grandfather bought part of the island in the 1980s, was first advertised for the track in January 2019.
He and his partner Alice received around 80,000 applications from people around the world – and must now close the number they consider at 300.
'First we try to postpone them, because if it is something, it is quite romanticized; The island, the sunsets and the beautiful places. But during the season it can be quite intense for the caregivers, “Alice told The Guardian.
The caregivers have five holiday homes and operate a coffee hatch for day trippers who visit the island, which is only accessible by boat and has no cars.
They have to remove their water from a spring and boil it, while electricity for telephones and headbagries is charged via batteries from a small wind turbine.
“We are just very comfortable to be uncomfortable,” said Camille, who has never been to the island, about their decision to change drastic life.
The caregivers have five holiday homes and operate a coffee hatch for day trippers who visit the island
“I think we'll like to look at the sunsets, look at the stars without light pollution and ending with a book in the candlelight,” she added.
Great Blasket is the most important island in the Blasket archipelago, is the home of a large gray seal colony and has a loop of 3.5 kilometers to walk around consisting of old paths and roads.
It is more than 1,100 hectares in size and has a peak, called a crór, from 346 meters above sea level.
It is only accessible by boat, with the ferry service that operates from Dunquin, the most western settlement in Europe, in the summer months that bring no fewer than 300 visitors a day.
