Hundreds Apply to Stay on Uninhabited Island, Many to Escape Modern Life

• Alice Hayes and Billy O’Connor run Great Blasket Island, an uninhabited island off the Irish coast.
• Every year, they search for caretakers to move to the island during the tourist season.
• They said many applicants apply, often looking for a career break.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Billy O’Connor and Alice Hayes, who run Great Blasket Island, an uninhabited island off the western coast of Ireland. This year, they selected a newlywed couple to serve as island caretakers for six months, which comes with a wage, food, and accommodation.

The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Alice: Seven years ago, our longtime caretaker left to become a teacher. We knew we would be left with nobody to take care of the holiday cottages and café on Great Blasket Island.

The tourist season was fast approaching. We were like, ‘We have nobody to cover the island. We need to get a caretaker. Who is going to be mad enough to come down and spend six months here?’

We decided to post something on Facebook and see if there was any interest in taking on the role.

We were very naive. Once the post went out, it instantly took off.

It was far more popular than we could have ever expected. We had about 80,000 applications.

Overwhelming interest

We spent a long time going through all the application forms — it became our bedtime reading.

In the years since, we’ve continued to open up applications, but owing to the large number of submissions, we have decided to cap the number we can receive online at 300.

We get a lot of international applicants from all over the world and from all walks of life — Americans, Canadians, retired couples.

They’re all enthusiastic about it.

The two caretakers we picked this year were finalists in last year’s application round — James is from Ireland and Camille is from Minnesota.

Billy: For a lot of people who applied in the first couple of years, it was so romanticized. People thought they would go to this paradise island and lie on a hammock all summer.

That was really the hardest bit: How do you not put people off but still let them know it’s actually a lot of work and it can be fairly miserable sometimes?

Alice: When people apply, we throw a bit of realism in there. We let them know that there’s no electricity or hot water in the guest cottages. There’s also the rain.

You’re ultimately out on an island, and there are no conveniences. You can’t just go to the shop or the pub. More often than not, applicants don’t mind that.

On the flip side, there’s a lot the island has to offer — nature, solitude, and peace. Last year, the caretakers got a spectacular view of the aurora borealis.

Billy: You’ve all the seals on the island, with basking sharks on the front of the island. In September, the final month, you also get dolphins and whales.

You’ve got seal pups, as well. A few caretakers have said that watching the pups being born are some of the best memories of their lives.

Alice: You have the most amazing sunrises and sunsets. We don’t try to romanticize it, but when these things happen, there’s no denying that it’s just incredible.

Usually, people apply because they’re looking for a career break or something like that.

You’re just more present on the island, without the distractions of the mainland and your phone.

With cities, the hustle and bustle of life, and everything being so busy, going to a place where there’s just nothing is so appealing.