Kearney Village.

Kearney is a former fishing village on the south eastern coast of the Ards peninsular it is owned by the National Trust, the houses are all private and not open to the public.

The village has little to attract the tourist, save for its picturesque location, the old world charm of the cottages, and some pleasant walks.

There is nothing at the village to hint that fishing was once the mainstay of the community, some sources suggest the former villagers engaged in wrecking, although they probably just collected the flotsam from unfortunate ships wrecked in their locality, as did every other coastal community in Ireland. Click the image on the right for a series of images of the cottages.

There have been many shipwrecks in the vicinity of Kearney the earliest we have come across was an English Sloop of war HMS Wolf carrying soldiers and 14 carriage mounted cannons which went ashore in 1748, giving its name to the rocks on which it foundered. Probably the largest casualty in the area occurred when the Adler, a German Barque of 471 tons, carrying sugar from Cobh to Grennock was wrecked on Kearney Point, 20 Jan 1877