Ireland 2013: The Ring of Kerry & Skellig Michael

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.