Sceilg Mhíchíl/ Skellig Michael Island — Local services in Kenmare Municipal District

No 1 on my bucket list finally ticked off. What a truly amazing & mind boggling place! Don't mind all the scare stories about the difficulty in ascending to the Monastery at 750ft - I managed st 62 yrs old, 17 stone & with a chest infection and only one fully functioning lung kn the day. Monolithic and awe inspiring on approach - seeing people as coloured dots scaling the stone stairway hundreds of feet above you can leave you feeling challenged to even get off the boat... from the sheltered pier, it's about 500m walk slightly uphill, to the briefing g spot at the bottom.of the stone stairway. Staff are calm, very patient and very informative. Some people chose not to go up from there, but mainly very elderly or infirm( those with walking stick by necessity). The 1st 150 ft vertical was most challenging for me , but we set off too quickly. After 2 rest stops before roughly 1/3 of the way up, we began to pa e ourselves better and eventually reached the Monastery in c 35 minutes. It's not a long walk but it is a steady climb. You get a rest about 100ft below the Monastery in a flat area between the peaks, take a few minutes and then it's just the final stairway to the top level. The Monastery itself is mind-blowing - hard to conceive it being built with bare hands, 750ft up a rock over 1600 years ago.... and still standing today. The Guide gave a wonderful.and detailed account of the history and the Monks lives & how & why even young children are buried out there with the Monks. We spent around 45 minutes exploring every building, corner and viewpoint. It' offers dramatic viewpoints down to the boats and over to the Little Skellig & along the coast. Take care on the way down - concentrate on every step & foot placement - if you want to take a picture of the Puffins, sit down at the edge if a step & let others past. We made it down jn c 20 minutes...but go at your own pace. I'd recommend stopping and looking up every 5 minutes as you can get light hrleaded constantly looking down. The trickiest bit for me was at the top if the highest staircase on the way fown - it turns left and right before you reach a safety chain , but you can lean against the rock. The whole trip is well worth doing - while not cheap, it's a trip if a lifetime- our boat (Brendan Casey Tours) from Port Magee was excellent - very informative, very safe and took a lot of time exploring Little Skellig birdlife and Seals on the way out - we were haunted with the weather kn the day - calm & cloudy on the way out and then yhe sun came out when we reached the Minastey at the top. Take cold water with you - you will need fluids - it's a tough climb but very do-able. There ARE now Public Toilets on the island - so no worries. Bring head cover as you will be rained on by Puffins pooh. I wore Shetchers - the day was dry, but you might need trekking shoes if it is wet (just for grip). Look.out for the few other "Stsirways" the Monks built all.those centuries & over a millennium.ago on your approach and also where they hand carved steps into the tochs at sea level to bring people & goods onto hand. The OPW are doing an amazing g job kn making the experience safe without diminishing the authenticity of the Monkd legacy. In future you will also be able yo visit yhe 2 old lighthouses as they are working at re-establishing the old roadway out ti the west side cliff locations- that will be amazing too. Pay the fee, pray for fine weather & an easy landing, get a little bit of fitness training in well in advance and pace yourself. You will be blown away by the...

I had read that this was everyone's favorite part of their trip to Ireland, so I knew I had to try to get tickets.

There are only about 12-15 boats allowed to go per day and each holds only 12 people. We looked into booking two months in advance and over half of the boats were sold out already. Some of the boats have websites but most you just have to email. It's 85 euros per person and you pay in cash only on the boat. It is very dependent on the weather. They say only about 70% of boats go out because of bad weather. If your trip is cancelled because of weather you don't have to pay, but you won't be able to rebook. All but one of the boats leave from Portmagee and there is no ATM in that town, so bring your cash with you.

The ride over to the island is 1-1.5 hours. You first go around Little Skellig which is a great view. There are so many birds around that island. Since we had good weather, they took us around Skellig Michael before we landed which was really cool to see. If you get motion sick, come prepared because it is a choppy ride. We apparently had one of the smoothest trips, but it was still really rocky to me. I took Dramamene before and I still felt kind of nauseous 2/3 of the way through the trip.

Once you land, you walk up a short path with a hill where you meet a guide and a couple of other boats. The guide gives you many safety precautions before you start your climb. The climb up to the monasrery is around 600 steps. There steps are very steep and narrow on the edge of a cliff. It's a bit scary, but if you pay attention to the ground, it's not too bad. It's a challenging climb, but it only takes 20 minutes or so to get to the top. There are good views the whole way up (make sure to stop before looking around). You are not allowed off the path. We got lucky with the weather and it was sunny, but they say the stairs are slippery when they are wet.

Once at the monastery, you are free to explore and enjoy the views. Once everyone from your group is at the top, there is a guide that will tell you about the history of the monks lives at the monastery. It was very informative and interesting. You get about 2-2.5 hours on the island before you have to be back at the dock to catch your boat back.

There are no toilets on the boats or on the island, so make sure to go before you leave and not to drink much on the trip. There is no food or drink on the island or boats, but you can bring your own with you. You aren't allowed to eat in the monastery, but you can eat before or after. You will probably get wet on the boat, so waterproof clothing is a good idea. We only got a little bit of spray, but with worse weather, you would get more. The trip lasted from about 9:45-3 for us, so it takes most of the day.

Fun fact: this is the island featured in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi.

This completely lived up to my high expectations. So far, this has been my favorite thing that we've done on our Ireland trip (we have Northern Ireland remaining). If you have to pick one thing to do, I would definitely...

The review is specifically for the OPW. TLDR: You need to publish what you’ve done here guys.

My first visit to Skelligs and of course I’m just blown away by the magnificence of this early Christian site. The walk up felt very safe and stable and the safety briefing beforehand was cautious and clear, aiming to give people key warnings needed. I’m really pleased that the approach to the monastery from the jetty is both well maintained and as natural as it could possibly be for 200 odd people a day climbing up it.

but :

I had some questions about the conservation of the site as it looks more movie set than historical relic…. and the guides simply blew my questions off and told me there has been no modification to the site but for the top 2 foot of the beehives. I had alarm bells going off in my head. Maybe the guides are simply tired at the end of the season and didn’t want to talk but it felt like the archeology/conservation of the site was a conversation they didn’t want to discuss in any way.

I had not read much about the Skellig archeological controversy till I got back from the tour. I have read a bit now, seen old photos, and I can understand why I felt so uneasy at what I was seeing today.

So…. Publish what has gone on here please. Looks like people have been asking for quite a while now and the lack of transparency is a problem. I would like to know what it really looked like and why it decisions have been made to...