[1] This increases with visitors arriving during the tourist season; many staying in self-catering accommodation in the form of restored traditional island cottages.

The island is linked to the mainland by the local ferry, Ocean Star III, with return trips several times a day.

Trips to and from the island and tours of the bay are available during the summer months, incorporating local history, scenery and the indigenous flora and fauna.

Due to its mild winter temperatures, it has a local reputation for producing the region's earliest potato crop.

The US Navy's Air Wing established a seaplane base on the eastern end of the island; this became operational on 25 September 1918 when the first two Curtiss Model H planes arrived.

These air crews patrolled shipping lanes around Fastnet Rock – close to where the RMS Lusitania had been sunk some years earlier.

Liberty 12 engines (in a "pusher configuration"[citation needed]), four Lewis machine guns, a bomb load of four 230 pounders and a crew of five – consisting of pilot, two observers, a mechanic and a wireless operator.

The stone memorial, located close to the top of the Whiddy pontoon, was unveiled by Lieutenant Colonel Seán T. Cosden, Defence Attaché at the American Embassy, who attended the event – along with members of the Irish Air Corps.

On Monday, 8 January 1979, a French tanker, the Betelgeuse, was unloading a cargo of crude oil at the terminal when it exploded.