On the way back from Skellig Michael we dropped in on some old friends of the family (and my old Scout Leaders) Paddy and Jane Glanville.
They have a holiday house (Bach) down on Lough Derg, so we were lucky enough to have a quick boat trip on the Lake.
Emma, their daughter, was as … sharp as ever.. when she said “if your boat is sinking – get Maaike to row”. No idea why – I think she was just lucky. That said, I suppose the Netherlands is mostly under water.
The day dawned chill and clear. A light mist floated above the ocean. Gulls circled oer’head and the clarion call of a church bell was heard in the distance.
Or something. Should I write more purple prose? Please comment below.
That said, those are the sorts of thoughts and feelings you have when heading to such a forbidding / mysterious / imposing / impressive place – such as Skellig Micheal is.
We took the boat across (with Padjo) and it wasn’t the smoothest of rides over. Stunning though.
On the approach you start to get … quieter .. I suppose. It’s just ‘awesome’. In the breath-word-taking sense of the word (to borrow from Eddie Izzard – not in the “this is an awesome hotdog” sense of the word). As you get closer one of the staircases (there are three) that *used* to be used, becomes visible.
And you start thinking (or I did) “please, I don’t want to climb up that”. Fortunately the stairs that you do climb are round the back of the Island – and rather safer than the ones pictured above.
Actually getting off the boat onto the Island is definitely the scariest part of the journey. You have to step off the boat onto some slippery narrow steps. It’s all fine as long as you get it – but getting squished between the boat and the bank would have to be a nasty way to go. I was most impressed that mum waltzed up and off the boat. Slightly put the pressure on really.
The monastic settlement itself is way above the ocean below (surprisingly high – I’d not really realised) and was occupied from about the 7th Century for about 500 years or so. Quite the hermitage.
It’s a ridiculous place – absolutely awe inspiring. Here’s a short video taken from just above the huts.
After that it was back down to the boat, and back to the mainland. On the way back you go past Little Skellig – which is the second?! largest gannet colony in the world. The Island has never been inhabited by mankind.
Next, it was onto Valentia Island to view the museum, and onwards to look for some Dinasour (Tetrapod) footprints. This was a lizard like creature who left some muddy foodprints (and a tail swish) about 415 million years ago.
Finally back to the house, a lovely sunset, and some great family times – reading is especially sociable ;)
This was an absolutely brilliant trip. I’d always wanted to get to Skellig Michael as it’s the last of the UNESCO sites in Ireland that I’d not seen. It’s a very long way from Dublin to Skellig Michael. At least in Irish Terms anyway. It’s about 6 hours drive down to where you catch the boat, and another hour on the boat from there. I’m not sure where a further point from Dublin might be.
On the way down we were lucky to be able to go via Birr (Co. Offaly). A good friend from college (Angelica) is living there – and has just had a baby (Eamonn)…
It really was a very quick drop in to say “hi and bye” as her sister was arriving for a picnic.
After dropping in to see Ang, we were lucky enough to have a cuppa coffee with my Dads second cousin who was Alison (Cook-Hurle (grandfather was Davey)) – and married the Earl of Rosse. They live in Birr Castle. I vividly remember going there for a visit as a 6 year old. There were secret passageways everywhere, and a dungeon, and and and.. everything. It was amazing.
This time we had great chats about Skellig Michael (Birr is hoping to become a UNESCO site because of the Leviathan of Parsonstown which was a 1.8m diameter reflecting telescope built in 1845 by the Third Earl of Rosse (a former President of the Royal Society), and the biggest telescope in the world until 1917. It was great to drop in – and now I must get round to reading “The Gallant Little Campeador” which is a WW2 story about some older gentlemen (specifically our mutual great (great?!) Uncle Charlie) who wanted to help with his yacht in the war. The Admiralty told them to go away as they were too old – and they wrote to Churchill, who then wrote the admiralty a note saying “Age will be served” – and off they went.
I seem to be wandering. Here is a picture of Birr Castle – with the Earl and Countess of Rosse.
Next it was on down to Portmagee (Kerry) which is where the boat to Skellig Michael goes from.
It’s a beautiful part of Ireland and well worth the trip if you’re in the country for a while. The people are far more relaxed (dare I say it, Kiwilike?). I’d arranged a house to stay in (€150 for the house for two nights! – bargain!) through the boat people. Our landlady gave us these instructions:
Almost found it perfectly, but missed “the bend”. Anyways, Mary came out and leaned in through the window and shook each of us by the hand saying “welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome”. It was really warming.
Chris and Matt (brothers) drove down from Dublin that evening and it meant a lot to have them down there for the trip out to the Island. The only thing that was missing (besides my sister) was the whiskey bottle. But then that might have been a fortuitous omission for the boat ride the next day…
We were lucky to be invited to the wedding of my primary school friend (Keith Lambkin)’s wedding. He was marrying another friend (Aisling) whom I met in secondary school – and Keith properly met in college.
It was a really lovely wedding – and great to catch up with a few other friends (Ben, Barry) at the shindig. Keith is now the ‘Chief Scientist’ down in Valentia where he runs the MET Service’s meteorological weather observatory. Sounds really interesting – and he’s definitely loving it down there. Aisling is going to move down there now that they’re married – and hopefully she’ll be able to find interesting work. Still, it’s a beautiful part of the world.
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At Irish weddings (I wasn’t aware of this to date), there are bets taken on how long the speeches will go on for… I think it was 37 minutes all up? – I’ve put the audio to most of the best man’s speech (Ian, Keiths brother) up here (click to play). And we were put at ‘Abel Tasman’ table too – quite appropriate I thought :)
It was great to be there – I’m sure they’ll have a lovely happy life together.
The next morning (Weds) Maaike and I headed back to Dublin – via Mount Usher gardens (just a small gardens in Wicklow – but lovely in spring). Maaike is hiding in one of these pictures. Postcard to the first correct poster (not a hard one I think).
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Well.. it’s 36 hours door to door – and knackered upon arrival. It’s been hectic and fun being back in Ireland – but certainly haven’t had the easiest time of getting over the jetlag. It’s hard when you’re up chatting until midnight or later most nights.
Just going to put a slideshow up – there’s not enough hours in the day to write everything up properly… but .. highlights / observations so far:
These pictures are from Easter Sunday lunch – and a trip down to Glendalough. There’s still snow on the ground (which is not very like Ireland!).
One thing I will say – we went to Easter Vigil mass (9pm on the Sat) and the priest gave an amazingly heartfelt and personal sermon. The entire place erupted into spontaneous applause when he finished. Basically he said that everyone had been entirely let down by the bureaucracy of the church – and that he and others were extremely disappointed.
We’ll see, as in the words of our B&B Landlady (for Keiths Wedding.. another story to come) Ireland has had a crisis in the government, the church, the economy and the really awful winter. Still, perhaps some reinventing of the “way things are” will come out of it all.
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