Skellig Michael (Sceilg Mhichil)

The monastery is associated with St Fionan and is regarded as one of Ireland's earliest monastic foundations, although its exact founding date is not known. By around 950 to 1050 it was dedicated to St Michael, and the monks maintained their community on the rock for centuries, building cells, oratories, retaining walls and stairways entirely of dry stone. Three landing points connect by flights of steps to the main monastic remains, which sit on a terrace near Christ's Valley, the saddle between the island's two peaks.

The monks left the island in the thirteenth century, but Skellig Michael remained a place of pilgrimage and later served as a refuge for Catholics during the era of the Penal Laws. It is now in the care of the Office of Public Works, and its UNESCO inscription in 1996 recognised both its architecture and the extraordinary setting that shaped this way of religious life.

The Skelligs are woven into the life of the south Kerry coast. Boat operators in Portmagee, Valentia, Ballinskelligs and Derrynane are often local families who have worked these waters for generations, and the islands appear in local place names, stories and art. For many Irish people the island also carries religious and cultural meaning as a symbol of the early Irish monastic tradition and its endurance at the edge of Europe.