Cutoff from the mainland and lying 80 meters from the shore is a dramatic sea stack known as Dun Briste (also spelled Doonbristy) or “the broken fort”. The sea stack got separated from the mainland in 1393 as a result of high seas, and the people living on the cliffs had to be rescued using ships’ ropes. The sea stack is beautiful to behold because you can see the layers upon layers of multi-coloured rock strata. Dun Briste is roughly 63 meter by 23 meters, and 45 meters high.
The cliffs in the area, including the stack, were formed in the Lower Carboniferous period, a geological term applied to a time about 350 million years ago, when the sea temperatures around Ireland were much higher than today. Local folklore tells a different story though. The legend says that a pagan chieftain once lived on the spot where the stack now stands. When he refused to convert to Christianity, St Patrick struck the ground with his crozier, splitting a chunk of the headland off into the ocean, with the chieftain on top.