Just because you find out about a historic site for the first time while on holiday does not always mean that you will get to it.
While Newgrange and the Poulnabronne could consider themselves well and truly ticked off the list, Skellig Michael will have to wait for another year.
An order of monks decided that the West Coast of Ireland just wasn’t enough of a test of their faith and dedication in the face of adversity. So when they came across a desolate, windswept, vertically faced lump of rock off the coast of Kerry, they thought just one thing… What a perfect setting for our new monastary!
And so the monks carved a stairway up the cliffs of Skellig Michael. They then set about building a monastery on top. And for the occasions when even this was not remote enough they carved a final stairway to the topmost point of the highest crag and fashioned themselves a hollow behind a rock for individuals to retreat when they needed to get away from it all.
The AV in the Skellig Michael visitors centre was fascinating. As well as starvation and the weather, the monks also had to fend off the Vikings who kept coming over to steal their gold altar pieces.
The Museum also had a section on the lighthouse keepers who had worked there through the 19th and 20th Centuries.
Sadly the boat trips to the islands themselves were fully booked so we couldn’t go. We had a good view of them in their glorious desolate remoteness as we walked up to Bray Tower.
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