Inis Oirr is small enough to walk in a single long day. The sights are spread evenly around the island: the wrecked Plassy on the eastern shore, O'Brien's Castle on the central rise, the half-buried church of St. Caomhán in the dunes by the strand, and the lighthouse on the southern tip. Most visitors hire a bike at the pier or pay for a pony-and-trap tour.
The rhythm of the island is its real attraction. Stone walls divide the bare limestone into a vast patchwork of tiny fields, wildflowers grow out of the cracks in spring, and the Atlantic light shifts the whole landscape from grey to silver to gold over the course of a day.