Carbery's Hundred Isles

[1] Because of the Gulf Stream influence, the islands have a mild climate.

However, most of them are exposed to the elements, so patches of lush vegetation contrast with treeless expanses of hill and bog, fringed with rocky cliffs and mixed shingle and sand beaches.

[2] The eastern islands within the estuary of the Ilen River are more sheltered and fertile.

[citation needed] The phrase "Carbery's Hundred Isles" is taken from the narrative poem The Sack of Baltimore by Thomas Davis, published in 1844, which tells of the raid on the village of Baltimore by Algerian pirates in 1631, in which most of the inhabitants were kidnapped and brought to the slave markets of Algiers.

Setting the scene, the first line reads "The summer sun is falling soft on Carbery's hundred isles".