A boat trip off the coast of Kerry to the skelligs

By James Stone

Checking out the Skelligs was definitely something I had wanted to do during my visit to County Kerry. Rocky, seagull covered hulks sticking out if the water in the rough western edge of the Atlantic: that's what I'd heard about them. Sadly, though, no one in my hostel was really up for it – so I went out on my own.

The open topped boat, big enough only for around ten people and carrying four others (a family) that day, left Valentia at 10 am. The water was pretty calm on the way out – it was July after all. Everything seemed to be going fine except until, half way there, the boat shuddered to a halt. The boatman went over to the engine – it had overheated, I deduced, as it was hissing out steam. He pulled off the cap and brown water sprayed everywhere, causing a minor commotion amongst us passengers as we lurched out of the way. Unperturbed, the boatman coolly poured a pint of water into the engine and we were back in business, gliding and rocking along the waves.

The islands, 12 miles off the Kerry coast were quite a sight to behold. Spiky amphibious shards of rock, they shot out of the ocean and straight up into the lower part of the sky. Very Tolkienesque. There were two Skelligs, and the one nearest to us was nothing more than a giant seagull-covered splint of rock. A birds' playground, it was teeming with aviarian life of all kinds and gulls soared round its outer edge.

The island we alighted at, meanwhile, was inhabited. It had a small monastery nestled in the tiniest and yet, most dramatic valley. Climbing hundreds of tiny steps, I stood at one end of the island and gazed back down across to an opposing peak, taking in the sharp sea air and peering over the side towards sheer drops that gave way straight down to the ocean. I tried to imagine the kind of person who would have lived in the monastery on the other side of the valley through freezing winters in centuries past.

According to my guide book George Bernard Shaw took a trip to the Skelligs on September 17th 1910. He said: "But for the magic that takes you out far out of this time and this world, there is Skellig Michel ten miles off the Kerry coast, shooting straight up seven hundred feet sheer out of the Atlantic. Whoever has not stood in the grave-yard on the summit of that cliff among the beehive dwellings and beehive oratory does not know Ireland through and through ".

Now I am only an eighth Irish and have been to Ireland just twice in my life, so am hardly well positioned to comment on issues such as what it is 'to know Ireland'. But nevertheless, sitting on the boat across much choppier waters on the way back, I somehow felt that Shaw had been pretty much spot on.