Skellig Michael

Skellig Michael is a very special place, a rocky island topped by the ruins of an ancient monastery lying 12 kilometers off the coast of the Ring of Kerry. Boats run daily between Easter and October, and you need to call at least two days in advance to make a reservation. However, the trip to the island cannot be counted upon until the actual day because it depends on calm seas. Boat service operates from several harbors on the Ring of Kerry—Bunavalla: Kenneth Roddy, www.skelligtrips.com, email: ken@skelligtrips.com; Seamus Shea, tel: 066 9475129; Portmagee: Des Lavelle, tel: 066 9476124, email: lavelles@indigo.ie; or Brendan O’Keefe, Fisherman’s Bar, tel: 066 9477103. Remember to wear flat-heeled shoes and take a waterproof jacket, an extra sweater, and lunch. The morning departure for the island and the late afternoon return necessitate your spending two nights on the Ring of Kerry. After you arrive at the cove beneath the looming rock, the first part of your ascent follows the path to the abandoned lighthouse, past seabirds’ nests clinging to tiny crevasses in the steep rock slopes. As you round a corner, the monks’ stairway appears and you climb up hundreds and hundreds of hand-hewn stone steps to the monastery perched on a ledge, high above the pounding ocean. Pausing to catch your breath, you marvel at the monks who set out in fragile, little boats to establish this monastery and toiled with crude implements to build these steps up the sheer rock face. At the summit, six little beehive huts, a slightly larger stone oratory, and the roofless walls of a small church nestle against the hillside, some poised at the edge—only a low stone wall between them and the churning ocean far below. The windowless interiors of the huts hardly seem large enough for a person to lie down. Remarkably, the monks’ only water source was rainwater runoff stored in rock fissures. The Office of Public Works is maintaining and restoring the site and there might be someone there to impart information. It is reputed that the monks arrived in 600 A.D. According to annals, the Vikings raided in 812 and 823 and found an established community. It is documented that the last monks departed in the 13th century. When it is time to leave this spot, you feel a sense of wonder for the men who toiled in this rocky place, enduring deprivation, hardship, and solitude to achieve a state of grace.