Ireland day 1068. Saturday 31 August 2024- Skellig Michael

Today’s summary	Took a boat trip from Portmagee to Skellig Michael. A bumpy crossing but no problems apart from getting soaked. Had a look at the gannets on Skellig Beag en route. Successfully landed on Skellig Michael itself and had two and a half hours to explore this amazing island. Climbed up to the 1400 year old monastic settlement at the top, then had picnic lunch part way down. Circumnavigated Skellig Michael on the way back and after 5 hours made it back to Portmagee. Quickly went to the visitor centre for a cup of tea, then dinner at The Moorings
Today’s weather	Simply: amazing. Bright sun and blue sky all day , with no rain. Light south easterly wind. Appx 17c

Today’s overview location (The red mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The red line shows where we walked / sailed) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Skellig Michael including boat

Commentary

(Summary blog only. Last full blog was Day 0368).

Many people talk about making a trip to the fabled island of Skellig Michael, off the Atlantic west coast of Co. Kerry, but few actually do it. It’s expensive, requires a lot of co-ordination, and apparently as many as five out of six trips get cancelled, or go but can’t land, because of the weather.

Well today I think the weather gods must have decided it was time to offer some compensation for all those wet Wicklow walks and grim Galtymore grinds, because the sun shone, the sea was (relatively) calm, and we became part of the exclusive group of Skellig’s few successful visitors.

We booked our voyage with Paul Devane cruises of Portmagee and were scheduled to depart at 8:30 this morning. But Val (who had done all the organising – for which many thanks!) got an email last night advising that our departure had been delayed until 10:30. That worked fine, as it gave us longer to get breakfast. It turned out that the reason for the delay was because every day that sailing is possible, about fifteen boats (each with 12 passengers) all make their way across to the island. Since the Skellig landing jetty is tiny, the boats’ departures have to be staggered so they don’t all arrive at the same time.

Our own voyage was straightforward – quite bouncy and with a lot of spray. For some reason I was right in the slipstream and caught the full force of it so was soaked to the skin by the time we arrived, despite waterproofs. On the way, our captain (Dermot J Walsh) took us on a close fly-by of Skellig Beag (Little Skellig) which was a riot of noise and activity as a quarter of the world’s population of gannets come here every year to breed.

We eventually made it to Skellig Michael after about 80 minutes at sea – and thankfully with no hint of seasickness. We clambered ashore then, after a safety briefing from the OPW guide, started our sometimes precarious scramble up the 608 largely un-protected steps to the top (though there are chains at some points to hang on to).

The scenery as you climb is beyond spectacular. Jagged soaring peaks, vertiginous drops, and a tenuous network of stepped paths hewn out of the rock by the monks who first settled here about 1400 years ago. Simply breathtaking.

We eventually arrived at the monastic settlement, which is located high up on a ledge, one of the few relatively flat spots on the island. It is thought that as many as a dozen monks lived here, in more or less splendid isolation from 600 to 1100 AD – even surviving three pretty vicious Viking raids in the 800’s. Eventually they were forced to evacuate after a hundred years of bad weather in the 11th century made life unviable.

The uncemented beehive cells they made to live, eat and pray in remain pretty much fully intact today. That, and the outstanding location, is probably why Skellig Michael has been designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO – and possibly also why George Lucas chose to make two of his “Star Wars” films here.

We stopped off for lunch in a flat area just outside the settlement, and tried to soak up as much as we could of the sun, sea and scenery as we sat there. Days like this are one-in-a-million and you have to file them away for future reference for when the winter grey once more returns to Ireland.

Sadly, after about two and a half hours on the island, we had to leave. On the way back, we were taken on a full circumnavigation of the island, so we could have a good look at the lighthouses at the north end as we sailed (our captain’s grandfather had been one of the last lighthousemen). From there, we headed west and sped back to Portmagee, pausing briefly as we entered the harbour to rescue a piece of floating mooring which had somehow broken free and was drifting away out to sea.

We rounded off the day with a quick visit to the Skellig visitor centre (over the bridge on Valentia Island) and of course a cup of tea and chocolate cake in the café. Despite the refreshments, we were still hungry so headed straight into the Moorings pub in Portmagee for dinner. Scallops and crayfish were on the menu, which accompanied by a glass of local brewed beer, provided a fitting way to round off a simply perfect day, never to be repeated, and one of the very best we’ve been lucky enough to experience in our entire stay in Ireland.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Landing on Skellig Michael. The harbour was quite well sheltered, but you had to be fairly nimble as the boat was moving about quite a lot	The Wailing Women – a natural sculpture half way up. Skellig Beag (Little Skellig) is in the background

Midway up the 608 steps. Quite exposed so you ned to find a flat bit (like this) for taking your selfies, or else you might well end up in the Atlantic Ocean	In the monastic settlement itself. There is some evidence that the 1400 year old carvings on the cross might actually have been added onto an even older icon – in other words someone (or ones) may have been living on the island before the monks arrived here in around AD600

Skellig Beag – a quarter of the world’s gannets come here to breed	Safely and triumphantly back on shore at the end, having defied all odds actually to make the trip successfully

Iconic beehive cells – in an immaculate state of preservation – with Skellig Beag, again, in the background