Then she sang these fifty verses: ‘There is an island far away, around which sea-horses glisten ... a lovely land through all the ages of the world ... Begin a voyage across the clear sea, to see if you may find the land of women.’ Then the woman went from them, and they did not know where she went.

Anon, Voyage of Bran (Irish), seventh century AD

But as the woman departed ... she threw Connla an apple ... The woman said: ‘There is yet another land ... which rejoices the heart of everyone who wanders there; No one lives there, except women.’ Then Connla gave a leap into the woman’s crystal boat.

Anon, The Adventures of Connla the Fair (Irish), eighth century AD

5
Inga

When Inga first took a girlfriend to Cwen, she got the epiphany she needed. The island showed her what she needed to do.

She hadn’t been planning a tryst, or anything. It was just that she was stuck, vision-wise. They borrowed Jen’s husband’s dinghy, which had an outboard motor, and took a picnic, and were on the island in what seemed like seconds. Inga pretended she knew what she was doing. She pulled the boat up beyond the high-tide mark, and plonked a rock in the bottom.

They had sex on the east side of the island, with their backs against the mound. The creel boats occasionally came this way. But they wouldn’t be able to see anything from that distance. Except through their binoculars. Anyway, all Inga and her girlfriend could see was each other, which was the important thing. Their skin, and the sky, which was vast. And the sea. Eastwards, it was nothing but sea between Cwen and Norway.

Darkness.

After she came, she opened her eyes. She watched a bird in the sky for a while, without speaking. Its wings made a V and she traced this in the grass with her finger. It had its eye on something.

When it plunged down like an arrow, Inga sat up. The bird emerged from the sea with a fish. Inga pulled on her knickers. The orgasm had been instructive. As had the bird and the island. She said, ‘I’m going to bring women over here, to be educated. We need to build a community, in a new way. Also, I need to learn to sail. It’s rubbish relying on the ferry service.’

She got Eva involved. Eva didn’t know anything about those archaic male arts of rowing and sailing, either. Not that Inga wanted to be out on the water; she didn’t like it at all really, but she knew it was necessary for what she wanted to do. She looked for a female teacher nearby, but couldn’t find one. In the end, Eva and she went on a training weekend off the west coast of Scotland. They returned with a boat.