Little Skelling shines white on the horizon due to the guano accumulated over millennia of around 35,000 pairs of gannets
The next destination on my trip down memory lane was the Skellig Islands. These two uninhabited islands lie about ten miles offshore more or less due west from our last overnight berth in Derrynane. On the summit of the main island, Skellig Michael, early Christian monks built beehive stone huts and dedicated their lives to God in this wild and lonely outpost. They believed they were on the very edge of the world and it’s not hard to see why. Some 640 steep steps, hewn from the rock, climb from the only possible landing on the island up to their settlement and are known locally as the Stairway to Heaven.
Little Skellig, although smaller, is far more visible from a distance, shining white on the horizon due to the guano accumulated over millennia of around 35,000 pairs of gannets – the second biggest colony on the planet. Both islands plunge sheer and deep into the Atlantic and both are awe-inspiring, atmospheric places.
Fifty years ago, only two tourist boats ever visited The Skelligs, the one from Derrynane that I worked on and another
