Destination: Skellig Michael
Welcome to Destination: History, where we tackle interesting and fascinating places and take a stroll through the history behind them.
Today’s destination sees us on the rough seas as we approach a little rocky island with some pretty interesting residents. Largely left alone except for a select few, our destination has recently come full into the spotlight of tourists with the release of a pretty major movie.
Join me as we take a look at today’s destination: Skellig Michael.
Before the Monks
Skellig Michael is one of two rocky islands in the area. Skellig Michael or Great Skellig and the other, smaller island that goes by Little Skellig, both can be found in the Atlantic Ocean about 12 km off the County Kerry coast.
With Sceilg supposedly coming from ‘Scellic’ meaning ‘a steep rock’, it’s not wrong. There are two peaks on Skellig Michael with a valley in between. And the only known inhabitants of the island aptly named the valley, ‘Christ’s Saddle’.
It’s not exactly known when the island started to become known or even inhabited, but we do have a very distant reference that, unfortunately, only appears in legend, so no real solid facts. But the legend says that the island, known as Sceilgs, was used as the burial place of Ir, son of Milesius, which in the myth is the mythical ancestor of the inhabitants of Ireland.
And then we fast forward to roughly the 5th century, where texts from the 8th or 9th centuries talk of a fight between the Kings of West Munster and the Kings of Cashel. Apparently Duagh, a King of West Munster, is meant to have fled to Skellig Michael, taking shelter on the island when Aengus, King of Cashel, wasn’t too happy with him. And yet, no word if there was already a settlement on the island that Duagh fled to, just that he fled to the island itself.
The Monks
So as we move forward in time slightly we come to the only known inhabitants of Skellig Michael, the monks. Somewhere between the 6th and 8th centuries a monastery was founded on the island. It’s not sure why but the general consensus is that the small group of monks who took up residence on this remote island did it in
pursuit of greater union with God, [they] withdrew from civilisation to this remote and inaccessible place.
We don’t really know for certain who the monks were or who they followed, but it is thought that they were originally St Fionan monks. And we know that by the end of the 8th century they had definitely been on the island for a little bit, because we have a written record of a monks passing, Suibhni of Scelig.
Sometime before 1044 it’s thought that the monks had dedicated their island to Saint Michael, the Archangel, and built a church just for him. We know it had to be before 1044 because that is the date given for the death of ‘Aedh of Scelic-Mhichíl’, so obviously things had started to progress since Suibhni’s passing.
It’s also thought that throughout the 800s that Vikings would wander through and do what Vikings do. Apparently the monastery that the monks had painstakingly put together was ransacked several times. And even though Irish manuscripts give little to no information about what these attacks involved, we do know that after one particularly bad attack the monks did rebuild. So it was obviously an inhabited island and the monks were very clearly resourceful.
So while the monks lived on the island they did not stand about, they properly got to work on, what can only be described as, an island doing its best to be inhospitable. Of course the monks needed a monastery and so one was built. But the island is pretty much steep rocks, so the monks were very clever at picking spots that gave a bit of shelter and were quite versed at forcing rock to do what they wanted.
The monastery they built had an inner and outer enclosure, and sat on a rock plateau that they had flattened as much as possible. They used a system of retaining walls to build terraces that would hold up the buildings within their monastery. They even had a lower terrace with a garden.
In order to get to the monastery and then back down to the water to fish for breakfast and dinner the monks made three sets of stairs, quite literally out of the side of the sloping rocks. So of the East, South and North steps, the South Steps are the only ones that are still in use today. Being very steep and rocky, they can be very dangerous.
Here’s a quote from UNESCO, giving us just a little taste of how remote Skellig Michael really was and still is today:
The monastery … symbolises both the arrival and spread of Christianity and emerging literacy of lands so remote that they were beyond the frontiers of the Roman Empire.
After the Monks
So it would seem that at some point in the 13th century living on the island just got way too much work because the monks moved to Ballinskellig on the mainland. But we do know that the island remained a very important place of pilgrimage pretty much right up to today. So even though the origins of the island and those that lived there are very hazy, it was known to the wider world.
And we can definitely see this in Italian and Iberian charts from the 14th and 16th centuries, and even the Spanish Armada knew of the island because they mention it in accounts from 1588.
But by then the island belonged to the Butler family. They had acquired the land after the dissolution of the monasteries and looked to have been the legal owners since 1578. But the Butler family, they were good people, they continued to allow pilgrims to visit the island well into the 18th century.
It’s actually believed that Skellig Michael is the last sacred site in Europe when moving west and is actually part of a line of ancient pilgrimage places throughout Europe. This pilgrimage line runs from Skellig Michael through France, Italy and Greece and finally ends heading into Palestine. It’s known as the St Michael axis, which I guess makes sense because the church on Skellig Michael was dedicated to St Michael.
If we fast forward a little to the 19th century we see the island purchased by, what would in time become, the Commissioners of Irish Lights. Basically a lighthouse company. And they didn’t waste anytime in building two lighthouses on Skellig Michael. Which I imagine would help with all that naval traffic not wrecking on a rocky island. Even if it had been proven that people could very effectively live there.
In order to build the lighthouses a road had to be constructed to move construction materials around, and it runs along the southerly and westerly sides of the island. Unfortunately, in the construction of this road they had to remove a part of the original South Steps, which means that if you ever visit Skellig Michael the first couple flights of stairs you walk up aren’t actually original.
The Upper Lighthouse, that can be found at the end of the lighthouse road, fell into ruins and just stands there, slowly decaying. But the Lower Lighthouse has been kept working and is now an unmanned station. Meaning that ships can still pass on through into Ireland without any hassle.
In 1880 the monastic ruins were taken into state guardianship when the Office of Public Works took on the project of repairing the collapsed monastery structures. And since then the OPW has continued in its restoration and conservation of all the structures left behind by the monks.
What’s been left behind
So the island is once again empty, but the remnants of those who used to live there are still around and surprisingly well-preserved.
Even George Bernard Shaw thought so, he had this to say when he visited the Skellig Michael in 1910, calling it an:
incredible, impossible, mad place.
UNESCO says pretty much the same thing, but with a whole lot more words:
All the physical components of the ideal small monastery exist on Skellig: Isolation, difficulty in accessing the site, living space, buildings for worship and plots for food production. Here, amongst dramatic and unique setting, the indigenous stone architecture of a past millennium is intact and in a relatively stable condition.
And this remaining architecture has been the focus of excavations since the 1980s. Excavation seasons have been carried out in 1986–87, 1990, 1993–2004 and 2004–2008.
With each excavation a different part of the monastery was worked on, including the Oratory Terrace, the Monks Garden, the Monks Graveyard, the Large Oratory, and the steps. All of which we’ll touch on in a moment.
Here’s what UNESCO has to say about the state of preservation found at Skellig Michael:
Sceilg Mhichíl is an outstanding, 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.
Let’s now have a look over the kinds of buildings left behind by the monks. I won’t go into too much depth about these, just give a general overview, but there are some great bits of information on the World Heritage, Ireland website about all the structures found on the island.
The first building we’ll have a look at is the Hermitage, which is a pretty amazing feat of daring on behalf of the monks. The Hermitage literally sits on a narrow, narrow ledge just below the tippy top of the South Peak. That’s a good 218 metres above the water, the highest point on the island, and a very long way to fall. There is actually evidence of platforms being used which is speculated they were used for moving stone up there with which to build the structure.
The three main terraces, the Garden Terrace, Oratory Terrace and Outer Terrace, are themselves a good feat of engineering. It actually took some good old fashioned excavation and studying to truly understand how they managed it. They obviously had a fair amount of rock at their disposal and the evidence of quarrying backs that up. But to build terraces on an island in the middle of nowhere, now that’s something to be proud of.
There are round roofed structures that are called Cells. Don’t let this name put you off they weren’t like prison cells they were more like stone huts, where the monks would sleep and keep their things. When you’re looking at one of the huts titled Cell F, you’ll see that the interior is pretty square but the ceiling curves. This is due to a technique called corbelling in which stones are laid horizontally placed in a way that each new stone slightly overhangs the one below it eventually forming a dome. This technique was also pretty handy in keeping the building watertight with the slope of the stone facing outwards. Each hut looked to have sleeping areas for about three monks with each area having a little cupboard space built into the wall and stone pegs to hang stuff on. Seems quite cosy.
Around the monastery were massive retaining walls. These were made from drystone and were so large so as to provide shelter from the winds, and even managed to create a microclimate where essential food could be grown. When excavating the walls archaeologists found different parts of the wall dating from different periods, showing that the wall had collapsed at various points several times and was being actively repaired.
The structure known as the Large Oratory is thought to be the first Church used in the monastery. According to tradition it is built in an inverted boat shape. The walls show evidence of lime washing, which dates from the 19th century and is believed to have been done by the lighthouse families when they used it as their own church.
St Michael’s Church, the stone structure built specifically for the dedication to St Michael, is the only building on the island that was built using lime mortar. The church also has sandstone which was used for decoration and is believed to have been brought over from Valentia Island. While the roof no longer exists, archaeologists believe it would have been made from timber and most likely slated. The Church also had rendering on the outside meaning that it would have a looked very different to the other structures built by the monks.
Where there’s a church there’s always a graveyard, and Skellig Michael was no different. The Monks Graveyard can be found next to the Large Oratory and is a little smaller today than it was when the Monks were around because of a collapsed wall. The crosses that fill the graveyard are few and rough in shape but some do show some decoration.
Despite being surrounded by water, fresh water was extremely hard to come by on Skellig Michael, mainly because there was none. But that wasn’t about to stop our McGyvering Monks. They found a way to collect enough water that allowed them to stay hydrated and to grow enough food to keep them fed. There are even three water cisterns found within the monastery. Basically they found a way to collect water from the sloping bedrock above the monastery. It’s believed that these cisterns were made before the cells, meaning finding water was a lot more important to the monks than somewhere dry to sleep.
Conservation is now the aim of the game, and the first conservation works actually started back in 1978 when repairs were needed pretty urgently to a wall that had fallen over in the Monastery. Initially the conservation works concentrated on the steps to the south and the Monastery itself. And between 2004 and 2008 the work was focused on preserving the structures on the South Peak. This included the terraces and platforms and, as you can imagine, would have been a proper headache and a half to get to. But it all seemed to have gone well, with the work completed in 2008.
The Island today
As well as being an important pilgrimage and archaeological site, Skellig Michael is one of Ireland’s most important sites for seabirds. There are several flocks of various species that use both Great and Little Skellig as a spot for breeding.
The fact that these islands are fairly inhospitable and pretty far away from everything means that the islands are the perfect place for the birds to nest and bring up their young. The Atlantic Ocean makes for some pretty good feeding, whilst also making it difficult for humans to access and virtually impossible for predators to get to, meaning that it’s one of the few places that are predator free.
Considered to be ornithologically important, Skellig Michael is considered a Statutory Nature Reserve and is a specially protected area.
If you’re bobbing around in the Atlantic Ocean near the islands you shouldn’t be surprised to see manx shearwater, storm petrel, fulmar, kittiwake, guillemot, puffin and the occasional peregrine falcon.
When 1989 rolled around, the State bought the island off the Commissioners of Irish Lights meaning that the entire island, except for the single working lighthouse, are now owned by the State.
Just a couple of years later in 1996, UNESCO did the island the honour of including it on its World Heritage List in recognition of its outstanding universal value.
As we get a little closer to today we’ll make a quick stop off at 2014, where we’ll meet the production of Star Wars: The Force Awakens choosing Skellig Michael as one of its locations. Here’s the film’s location manager on the wonder that is Skellig Michael:
We were just blown away by it. It’s an extraordinary place. It certainly fed into our Star Wars universe.
And Skellig Michael in the Star Wars universe isn’t a one-show horse, because it also does a pretty good job in The Last Jedi.
And while Tourism Ireland was initially excited about the bump in tourists travelling to see the island, recently they’ve had to put limits in place to minimise the effects of over tourism, especially on an island that isn’t used to large amounts of people.
These days the only way to access the island is by boat from the seaside town of Portmagee. And getting to the island isn’t easy either, because of the nature of the Atlantic Ocean and the challenging spot of the moor, sometimes the boats aren’t able to make the trip and can only give the go ahead about half the time.
And there aren’t commercial ferries that can take you to Skellig Michael either, which means that you’ll need to book a spot on a private boat which can take a good 90 minutes each way. So definitely a day trip kind of thing.
And just remember that if you do decide to visit there are no places to buy food on the island nor are there any bathrooms, so make sure you’re well equipped and well emptied before you get going.
Oh, and because of the steep cliffs and stairs, Skellig Michael really isn’t a good place for children and might be tough for those with mobility challenges.
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Originally published at https://destinationhistorypod.com on May 16, 2021.
