Ireland: Skellig Michael
A tiny speck of rock 7 miles off the west coast of Ireland, Skellig Michael shot to widespread international fame with the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Much as Luke Skywalker exiled himself there, early Christian monks built small stone huts, terraces and pathways on the remote, inhospitable island to better commune with God without the distractions of the secular world.
one of the island’s many puffins - they inspired the porgs in Star Wars: The Last Jedi
It is hard to imagine how isolated those 6th-century monks must have been - even today it is not easy to get to Skellig Michael. Tourists must go by boat, and the number of people who can land on the island in a single day is limited. Only about 10 boats have permits to land, and they can only take about 12 tourists each day. Weather can cancel the trips, sometimes for days at a time, as the tiny quay where the boats dock cannot be used in high seas. Despite all this, intrepid tourists have been visiting since the 1800s, when they would hire rowboats to haul them out to the island. (It does have a helicopter pad for emergency evacuations.)
a view of Little Skellig - an uninhabited bird sanctuary
Getting there is only half the struggle - once you land, and recover from any motion sickness that 7 miles of 8-10 foot swells in a small boat may have kicked up, you have a bit of a climb ahead of you. A well-maintained concrete walkway leads you away from the quay but quickly turns into ancient steps that are steep, narrow and often slippery.
one of the old paths to the top (the new ones are still just as narrow and steep)
Once you reach the top, the views are epic. Dramatic cliffs plummet 600 feet to the Black Sea below. On a sunny day, the grass glows electric green, and on a foggy one it shimmers in the changing light. You can enter the monks’ tiny beehive cells and imagine a life praying and eating birds, eggs, fish and lichen. And then be even more grateful for your peanut butter and jelly sandwich and cookies.
If you go: you can only visit in the summer (from about May through September) and there is a limit of somewhere around 200 visitors a day, AND due to wind and weather a fair number of trips to the island get cancelled. So it behooves you to plan in advance, and if you are absolutely committed to getting out there (as I was) consider booking space on a boat 2 days in a row (as I did). I was lucky, and was able to land on the island on both days I had booked. Bring your own food, water, rain gear, good walking shoes and sea sickness remedies. And you’ll want it all in a backpack so your hands are free for climbing the steps.
