THE SKELLIG ISLANDS!

 Wow! A thousand times WOW!  On the plane between Toronto and Heathrow, I looked at booking a Skellig Island landing tour and there were 2 spots available on the June 11th tour.  By the time we landed in Dublin 7 hours later, there was only 1 spot available!  So I booked it immediately for Peter as it was a really big deal for him, and booked myself on a boat tour around the Skelligs.  As it’s 2.5 hours from where we are staying, we booked into The Old Cable House in Waterville, only a few kms from where we needed to be in the morning. As I had booked on price and this one was less, my expectations were low.  They exceeded my expectations a hundred-fold! It is a family owned and operated business with a kick-ass restaurant. The whole place was gorgeous, clean and tidy, and the restaurant’s seafood mix with homemade pasta was to die for!  Breakfast for me was salmon and eggs, with mushrooms and roasted tomato. Peter had the mini-Irish and we both left well satisfied (and the coffee was so good). The owner kindly provided us with a couple of bottles of water for our journey too.  I can recommend a stay there 100%.  (Plus it had a skeleton key for the door, so...no-brainer).

So, why is it such a big deal to get to the Skellig Islands?  Because only about 50% of the scheduled tours are actually able to get there and make the landing due to the unpredictable weather, winds and currents of the ocean. The Skellig Islands are 12 kms off the west coast of Ireland in the wild Atlantic Ocean. And we had a beautiful, sunny day and calm oceans. Even better, they called just before boarding time to say there was a last-minute cancellation and I could come on the landing tour as well, if I wanted.  Yes, please!  So promptly at 10:00 a.m., we boarded the Skellig Crest with our captain, John, and tour guide, Chris, working with Skellig Island Tours. They were attentive, responsive and full of information about the islands, the wildlife, and being back to the dock at 1:55 p.m. if we didn’t want to spend the night on the island.

One of the Skellig islands is a bird conservation area with thousands of sea birds. Gannets, guillemots, and puffins are the predominant ones.  I did not know that gannets cannot take off from a landing spot. They drop off the cliff edge to fly. They mate for life and only have one egg per season, unless it is lost early in the season. Experience at tough love, they kick their babies out of the nest early, straight into the water.  The young could spend up to 2 weeks in the water before learning to fly. At adulthood, they have a wing span of up to 6 feet, a reinforced skull that allows them to hit the water at 100 kph and “visors” that close over their eyes when they dive to protect their eyes.  Apparently, the Concorde jet was designed with the same idea of the reinforced nose.  Pretty dang cool!
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Sceilg Mhichil (Skellig Michael) is the larger island and the site of a monastery established in 600 AD and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  St. Fionan’s monastery is built at the very top of this island – 618(ish) steps up a sheer cliff face. It is a daunting task and no place for anyone with vertigo or acrophobia. The stairway is definitely an "L" road - slow down and move over to let anyone coming the other way pass if you don't want to tumble down the 750 ft cliff.  The climb requires attention and care, but the monastery and views at the top are so worth it.  The monks built and lived in beehive-shaped huts made from the surrounding stone and were self-sustaining, keeping rabbits and birds for eggs and food. There are two stairways to the top and the original one, now blocked from access is even scarier.  With only occasional trading for skins to use for writing, they studied and prayed and remained isolated from the outside world for 600 years before abandoning the monastery in the 13th century.  It's also the site of a Star Wars scene with "old" Luke Skywalker and from Skellig Michael, you can see the lonely, rugged slope in the middle of the ocean that was used to film the scene with Harry Potter and Dumbledore on their way to find Voldemort's cave containing a horcrux.

Many beehive huts are still there and you can peek in side. The Manx Shearwater birds use some of these huts for nesting and the entrances are blocked because they don’t want tourists disturbing them. The population of the Manx Shearwater is in decline and so they strive to protect the nesting areas.  The island is also covered with Puffins. These quirky little birds are more concerned about seagulls getting into their burrows and killing their pufflings than they are of the tourists. They readily sit and watch and even appear to pose when a camera comes out, keeping a watchful eye over their burrows. The monks had kept rabbits and since their departure, the puffins have taken over the rabbit burrows for their nesting.

Other highlights were a pod of dolphins we saw on the way out, lighthouses built on Skellig Michael and a rare, special little loop in a gap between the islands that would never have been possible with rougher seas.  On the way back, we had stellar views of the Kerry Cliffs, and a big signal tower built on a headland.  The ride back was a bit choppier, but still very calm and the spray splashing over the boat occasionally was no problem for me as it fascinates me.  All in all an amazing day. 

I have more stories to tell about this area, but they will have to wait for another day as I have a gazillion photos of just the Skellig experience! I'm all sun and windswept tired, so I'm not going to even try to pare them down. Enjoy!