According to the 2016 census about 10% of the population of the electoral division speak Irish on a daily basis outside the education system.

The rocks referred to in the area’s Irish name are the Skellig Islands—Skellig Michael and Little Skellig—an ancient monastic colony which lies off the coast from Ballinskelligs.

[6] Ballinskelligs was the termination site of an early transatlantic telegraph cable laid in 1875 from Tor Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada—a distance of 2,565 nautical miles (4,750 km).

[8][9] The castle was constructed by the MacCarthy Mór dynasty in the 16th century to protect the bay from pirates, and possibly in order to charge a tariff on incoming trade vessels.

The project is led, since its foundation in the 1990s, by local resident Noelle Campbell-Sharp of Canuig House.