Cruit Island is a small inhabited island in the Rosses

The Rosses

The Rosses is a geographical and social region in the west of County Donegal, Ireland, centred around the town of Dungloe, which acts as the educational, shopping and civil centre for the area...

 region of County Donegal

County Donegal

County Donegal is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Donegal. Donegal County Council is the local authority for the county...

, Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

. It is linked to the mainland by bridge.

The island is a minor centre for rock climbing

Rock climbing

Rock climbing also lightly called 'The Gravity Game', is a sport in which participants climb up, down or across natural rock formations or artificial rock walls. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a pre-defined route without falling...

 on its granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 sea-cliffs; the 2002 guidebook

Climbing guidebook

Climbing guidebooks are used by rock climbers to find the location of climbing routes at crags or on mountains. Guidebooks also offer condensed information about local restaurants, bars and camping areas; often include sections on geology and local climbing history; and may contain many pictures to...

 lists about 27 single-pitch climbs, mostly established in 1985.

Culture

Cruit Island has a strong musical heritage, local musician Seán McBride wrote the famous Irish ballad "The Homes of Donegal

The Homes of Donegal

"The Homes of Donegal" is an Irish ballad written by songwriter Seán McBride in 1955. It has been performed by many singers, most famously by Paul Brady....

" in 1955. The song "Thíos Cois na Trá Domh" originates from the Island and it remains a very popular song in the Donegal Gaeltacht

Gaeltacht

is the Irish language word meaning an Irish-speaking region. In Ireland, the Gaeltacht, or an Ghaeltacht, refers individually to any, or collectively to all, of the districts where the government recognises that the Irish language is the predominant language, that is, the vernacular spoken at home...

to this day.