Sunday,
September 15, 2013
On the spur of the moment at breakfast we decided to drive
the Ring of Kerry. It was pouring down rain as we left, so we figured we would
be staying in the car most of the day. Our first stop was the Staigue Stone
Fort. The fort, which was built somewhere between 300 and 400 CE, probably was
a defensive stronghold for a local lord or king. The fort was built
without mortar, using undressed stones. Off the main
and secondary roads, as are most sites worth seeing, it took a little effort
getting there. Our second site today was an Ogham stone. There are
hundreds of these stones bearing inscriptions in Ireland, dating from as early
as the 4th century. The inscriptions are a very old form of writing – a
vertical line with horizontal slashes. The Ogham writing, which is read from
bottom to top, is sometimes called the "Celtic Tree Alphabet." It was
kind of hard to see the inscription. Still raining pretty hard. Pushing on, we
took the long road to Portmagee over the highlands, and were treated to a view
of Skellig Michael, a monastery built on a craggy rock of an island off the
extreme western coast of the Iveragh peninsula. The terrain of the island is so
extreme it took generations to carve out the hundreds of stone steps and build
the dry-stacked rock structures in which the monks lived and worshiped. In
spite of the hardships, monks lived on this island for over a thousand years,
until the 11th century. Just seeing the Skelligs through the mist was a thrill
for me. After descending the highlands we stopped by the Skellig Chocolate
Factory and enjoyed their most excellent fare – and more beautiful scenery -- before
visiting the “Skellig Experience,” a museum telling the story of the monastery.
Once again the sun came out in the afternoon.
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| Bashinskellig Bay |
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| Coming down from the highlands |
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| Don't climb on the rock walls! |
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| Inside the Staigue Sone Fort |
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| Ruins of church near St. Finan's Bay |
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| Obhan Stone near Hog's Head |
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| The Harbor at Portmagee |
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| Sandy beach near Waterville |
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| Skellig Michael in the distance, through the mist |
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| View toward Skellig Michael from the high road |
