All on board for a Kerry adventure
When Elizabeth Mc Cooey discovered that her now-husband Brendan Curtin was from Valentia, she didn’t know where the island was. But not only did the man from Valentia Island – which is located off the southwest coast of County Kerry – capture Elizabeth’s heart, so did the island itself. Eleven years on, the couple now runs Aqua Terra Boat Tours, and Elizabeth has become a guide to the hidden history, fascinating wildlife and invigorating beauty that this part of the Wild Atlantic Way offers.
"What makes me laugh is the fact that I knew nothing about the place and now I absolutely adore telling people about it,” says Elizabeth. “I think Valentia is magic – I love being the outsider and looking in, and that's what really allowed me to develop the tours with Brendan.”
An area rich in history and heritage
Elizabeth grew up in south Armagh in Northern Ireland and has worked previously in both tourism and hospitality. Both she and Brendan have backgrounds as Fleet Safety Training Officers on cruise ships, and Brendan is a former Irish Navy Commissioned Officer.
As soon as she arrived on Valentia, Elizabeth was “completely captivated by its beauty, the maritime stories and the countless untold stories that were waiting to be shared”. The island and surrounding Skellig Coast are crammed with incredible history – it was where the very first transatlantic cable was laid in 1854 and is home to 385-million-year-old fossilised tetrapod footprints.
Then there are the iconic Skellig Islands, located 13km off the Kerry coastline, which became the home of adventurous monks in the 6th century. The largest of the two rugged peaks, Skellig Michael, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is featured in all its epic glory in the films Star Wars: The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi.
Aqua Terra Boat Tours highlights the splendour and biodiversity of this area, and a key part to this is Ireland’s first Marine Park, the 70,000-acre Páirc Náisiúnta na Mara, which was launched in April 2024. It encompasses a wealth of ecology, namely the islands off the Kerry coast, offshore marine reefs and nearby coastal mainland sites.
“It's home to extraordinary biodiversity, marine and maritime heritage. You've got thriving seabird colonies such as your gannets and puffins,” enthuses Elizabeth, who embraces the marine park as a way of sharing the area’s maritime heritage and the importance of preserving it. “You've got basking sharks, dolphins, whales.”
Touring Valentia Island and the Skelligs
Aqua Terra Boat Tours offers several tours as well as private charters, utilising its Skellig Bounty boat and newer boat, The Navigator, depending on the tour. While Brendan expertly guides the boat around the nooks and crannies of the coastline, Elizabeth shares absorbing tales about the monks, Vikings and pirates who were based in the area over the centuries.
“It’s amazing the amount of hidden stories that are woven into that coastline in particular,” says Elizabeth, who ventured to the University of Galway, University of Limerick, UCD and Trinity College Dublin to undertake research into Valentia Island and the Skellig Coast. She found herself getting “completely lost” in her discoveries.
Aqua Terra’s Ultimate Skellig Coast Tour is the only tour of the jaw-dropping Skellig Islands that offers visitors a multilingual audio-guide option. During the 2.5-hour tour on board the Skellig Bounty, Elizabeth shares stories that include the untold tales of the Skellig lighthouse keepers. There were two lighthouses on the Skelligs from the late 1820s, but only one remains in operation.
Visitors learn about how the lighthouse keepers spent three to six months living by candlelight. “We're so used to – in our new, expensive, high-powered boats – getting in and out to the Skelligs or Inistearaght Lighthouse within an hour or less on a fine day,” says Elizabeth. “It would have taken you hours or maybe even days to get out to these remote lighthouses in the 1820s.”
The Valentia Island Experience Tour offers visitors a thrilling 1.5-hour journey on the Navigator that takes in the coastline’s dramatic cliffs, mysterious caves and diverse wildlife. On board, Elizabeth shares tales about Viking longships cutting through the seas and how 18th-century French pirates took advantage of Valentia’s hidden coves.
“From the lookout point around Valentia, they were able to see out the Atlantic and spot any of the British naval fleet,” she says of the pirates. Visitors can also view Church Island, which was home to monks, and the remains of a Viking settlement on Beginish Island.
On Aqua Terra’s serene two-hour Wildlife Eco Tour, visitors on the Skellig Bounty can watch out for dolphins, porpoises and even whales as they venture along the caves and inlets of Doulas Head, and the impressive 183-metre Fogher Cliffs at the base of Geokaun Mountain.
Meanwhile, Aqua Terra Boat Tours’ private trips offer a bespoke experience that can take advantage of both the immediate Iveragh Peninsula and the nearby Dingle Peninsula. And it’s all done in ultimate safety and comfort.
“We have the luxury with the new boat [The Navigator], because it’s fast, it's comfortable, it has airplane-style seats,” says Elizabeth. “It planes through the sea, so you don't have that rolling motion.”
Future plans
Focusing on the environment and sustainability goes hand-in-hand with Aqua Terra Boat Tours’ work. “You want to keep this ‘hidden gem’ as a gem, and the only way you can do that is to protect the area,” says Elizabeth, who is studying Regenerative Tourism at MTU.
Accessibility is another major part of its offering. The Navigator can be accessed by wheelchair users or mobility-restricted users and has a quieter engine. “We wanted to showcase [Valentia] Harbour to everybody,” says Elizabeth.
Thanks to the boat’s design and the shelter offered by Valentia Harbour, Aqua Terra Boat Tours’ season runs from mid-March to late November, with potential to extend it further.
The company has big plans for 2025, including the launch of a new website, development of private charters, and an exclusive collaboration with local distilleries, of which more will be announced soon.
Ten years after first visiting the island, Elizabeth is now a proud ambassador for the “magic” Valentia and Skellig Coast. “I love telling stories,” she says, “and I love bringing that history to life.”