Perched on the Edge: Ireland's Remote and Mystical Skellig Islands
An ancient monastic site in the realm of puffins and gannets
On days when the mists lift and the rains desist, two small islands are visible off the coast of County Kerry. Their jutting, craggy peaks pierce the sky and call to those standing on the western shores of the Atlantic Ocean to come to them. But strong winds, frequent storms and high seas often make the 12-mile (19 kilometer) journey a challenging undertaking, even in the summer.
The smaller island—Little Skellig—is too rocky to be inhabited by human beings. It is perfect, however, as a home for thousands of nesting gannets.
The larger island—Skellig Michael—boasts the ruins of a monastic settlement that is at least 1400 years old. It also provides a home for thousands of nesting puffins.
The call of the islands is still strong today. My husband, Gerhard Sommer, has dreamed of kayaking to Skellig Michael ever since we retired to Ireland in late 2019. He was finally able to visit a couple of weeks ago via a tour boat.
Now that he has seen the island, he realizes that kayaking there—especially when it comes to landing a kayak in roiling waves on the beachless island—is beyond his skill. But at least he was able to explore the place and take all of the pictures in this post.
I am fascinated by the Skelligs as well. But there is no way my knees can hike up (or even worse down) 618 uneven stone stairs that have no railings and that are often wet, slippery and buffeted by strong winds.
So I will rely on Gerhard’s photos to tell a first-person story!
Skellig Michael’s Monastic Settlement
To my mind, it is almost unbelievable that anyone was able to eke out a living on Skellig Michael, which consists almost entirely of rock, with no running water and little arable land. And yet between the 6th and 12th centuries, a group of monks was able to do just that.
Over time, they built a settlement on Skellig Michael that was 600 feet (180 meters) above sea level and that provided a home for approximately 12 men. To connect the rocky place where a boat could dock to the buildings at the top of two jagged cliffs, the monks built 618 steps out of stone. Then they built an inner stone enclosure plus two oratories (places of worship) and six beehive structures for living spaces.
To build these structures, they used the ancient technique of corbelling, where flat stones were stacked in such a way that each layer projected slightly beyond the previous one. In this way, they created dome-shaped buildings in which the final layer on the rooftop could be sealed with a single stone. The interior spaces required no interior supports, were either square or rectangular, and remained completely dry.
In addition, the monks built cisterns to collect rain water, a cemetery, and two small terraces on which to grow vegetables. Between the 11th and 12th centuries, they also built a medieval church using mortared stone.
The inspiration for creating a monastic settlement on Skellig Michael stemmed from the Christian ideal of asceticism, which was especially popular during the Middle Ages in Europe. This, in turn, was inspired by the desert fathers of early Christianity who had retreated into the Egyptian desert to live a life of solitude and prayer.
By abstaining from worldly pleasures in isolated, remote areas, some men hoped to develop a closer relationship with God. They believed that harsh, secluded environments were conducive to a life of contemplation, prayer and penance, as well as a way to avoid worldly temptations like women and families.
More than anywhere else in Europe, perhaps, Ireland at this time perfectly illustrated two world views. Christianity, whose demanding male god in the sky was separate from nature and human beings could only truly be found (appeased?) by separating oneself from other human beings and living an isolated life of self-denial and penance.
In contrast, pre-Christian Celts believed that all aspects of the natural world, including trees, rivers, mountains and animals, were inhabited by spirits and deities. Their society was organized around kinship and clan structures, with a strong emphasis on loyalty to one's family and tribe.
Because the community was seen as an integral part of the natural and spiritual order, there was no need to separate themselves from others in the hopes of finding God. God was in every single element of the natural world.
In any case, life on the island was clearly physically challenging and precarious. The only things the monks had to eat were birds, birds’ eggs, fish and the few vegetables they could grow on their small plot of arable land. Danger also lurked from the outside in the form of Vikings, who repeatedly plundered the island, bringing death and slavery to its inhabitants.
Over time, such threats—along with changes in the structure of the Irish church itself and climate changes that brought colder weather and an increased number of storms—led the religious community to abandon the island in the 13th century. Skellig Michael then became a place of pilgrimage, even into the modern era.
In 1826, two lighthouses were built on the Atlantic side of the island, along with associated living quarters.
In 1996, UNESCO placed Skellig Michael on the list of World Heritage Sites—one of only two UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the Republic of Ireland. In doing so, they wrote:
On the basis of cultural criteria and considering that the site is of outstanding universal value being an exceptional, and in many respects unique example of an early religious settlement deliberately sited on a pyramidal rock in the ocean, preserved because of a remarkable environment. It illustrates, as no other site can, the extremes of a Christian monasticism characterizing much of North Africa, the Near East and Europe. (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/757)
In 2014, Skellig Michael was chosen as a shooting location for the movie Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In 2017, it also acted as a shooting location for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. This heightened international awareness and increased tourism to the island.
Although the Skellig Islands no longer provide a home for human beings, they are teeming with life—from wildflowers and seals to amazing colonies of birds like puffins, gannets, guillemots, razorbills, cormorants and many more.
The puffins of Skellig Michael
During Gerhard’s visit to Skellig Michael, he saw literally thousands of puffins, and—for better or worse—they seemed to have no fear of human beings. As a result, he managed to take some delightful pictures of them.
These charming little birds (25 cm/10 inches in length) are found on several islands and high cliffs around the coast of Ireland. Although they appear somewhat comical in flight, their wings quickly propel them into the water, where they can dive up to 75 meters/246 feet in depth.
Puffins can live for up to 20 years and are typically monogamous. They return to Ireland in April and create burrows in the ground or rock crevices in which to build their nests. Then the female lays just one egg. For the next 36-45 days, both parents take turns incubating the egg. Once the puffling hatches, both parents take turns feeding the chick until it fledges in late July/early August.
Once the breeding season is over, puffins migrate offshore until the next breeding season. Recent tagging efforts have discovered that the Skellig puffins can travel huge distances in the non-breeding season, with many individuals migrating across the Atlantic to the east coast of Canada.
Because of their low reproductive output, puffin populations can be seriously affected by severe storms, polluted seas, and predatory species like sea gulls.
The northern gannets of Little Skellig
Gerhard and I are both mesmerized by the beautiful white-bodied, yellow-headed, blue-eyed northern gannets, whose wing span can reach reach 6 1/2 feet (2 meters). He fell in love when he saw them hunting in Dingle Bay several years ago. This is why his first kayak has a white hull, a yellow deck, and bears the name of Gainéad, the Irish word for gannet.
We love watching gannets soar in the sky, then fold their wings close to their bodies and dive, reaching speeds of up to 62 miles (100 km) per hour as they hit the water.
Beginning in March and April, the cliffs of Little Skellig provide a home for around 35,000 pairs of nesting gannets, making it the largest gannet colony in Ireland and the second largest colony in the world. Like puffins, gannets usually mate for life, return to the same nest year after year, and have just one egg.
Both partners also help to incubate the egg, which can take between 42 to 46 days to hatch, and they take turns feeding the hatchling. It takes the young birds between 84 and 97 days to fledge. When they do, they launch themselves off a cliff and attempt to fly. If the weather is bad at the time, they can be smashed against the rocks; if their parents leave them unattended, they can also be attacked by other adult gannets.
Once a fledgling is in the water, it is unable to return to its nest because it cannot fly well enough. Therefore, it stays at sea, where it gradually learns to fish and fly. Once it becomes an adult, a gannet’s typical lifespan is 17 years, and it faces few natural threats except those created by human beings.
How to get there
The Skellig Islands are just off the coast of the Iveragh Peninsula in County Kerry. Several tour operators based in Portmagee offer transportation by boat from May to September.
The boats take visitors across open ocean, and the crossing can be rough and wet. It takes about 50 minutes to reach Skellig Michael, and visitors then have 2 1/2 hours to explore the island before returning to Portmagee.
Reservations for the boat tours must be made in advance and can fill quickly. Starting times can sometimes experience delays due to weather challenges—or even be cancelled entirely. Therefore, it is important to stay in close contact with your boat tour company.
What a fascinating place - beautifully captured by your words and Gerhard's photos! We have a large puffin colony near us so it's wonderful to see them thriving in other places.
That looks fantastic!