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Website of the Week
17th February 2019
Skellig Michael
Thought for the day: "Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, ‘Truly, Yahweh is in this place and I did not know!’ He was afraid and said, ‘How awe-inspiring this place is! This is nothing less than the abode of God, and this is the gate of heaven!'"
Gen. 28:16-17
Just 500 years or so after the death of Christ, the first monks arrived on Skellig Michael, an island 12km from Ireland's south west coast, lying at the very edge of the then known world. The monastery that they established in this inhospitable environment remains one of the most remarkable testaments to human faith on earth. It is one of the world's greatest "thin places" - places at the convergence of the earthly and the spiritual worlds. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.“
Visitors to the New Pilgrim Path website may have noticed that each page of our site features a picture of Skellig Michael. The island was the westernmost sacred site along a long line of ancient pilgrimage places running from Mount Carmel in Palestine through Greece, Italy and France to Ireland. However, Skellig Michael has risen to unexpected prominence globally as a location in the two most recent "Star Wars" films. Ancient meets new!
Ancient meets new, too, in our 21st century pilgrimage. In bygone days, pilgrims typically stopped at holy sites along their way, to refresh themselves for the next stage of their journey. Today, our touch screens or keyboards can lead us on our path; websites can be the stopping points where we draw strength for our continued journey. Thus, images of the Skelligs seemed very appropriate for our website!
Visitors to the New Pilgrim Path website may have noticed that each page of our site features a picture of Skellig Michael. The island was the westernmost sacred site along a long line of ancient pilgrimage places running from Mount Carmel in Palestine through Greece, Italy and France to Ireland. However, Skellig Michael has risen to unexpected prominence globally as a location in the two most recent "Star Wars" films. Ancient meets new!
Ancient meets new, too, in our 21st century pilgrimage. In bygone days, pilgrims typically stopped at holy sites along their way, to refresh themselves for the next stage of their journey. Today, our touch screens or keyboards can lead us on our path; websites can be the stopping points where we draw strength for our continued journey. Thus, images of the Skelligs seemed very appropriate for our website!
Many visitors to our website have expressed an interest in learing more about the island which has inspired our images and our logo. This page seeks to capture some of its uniqueness in a selection of short films. If you prefer to read rather than view, the wonderful book The Forgotten Hermitage of Skellig Michael by Walter Horn provides a very readable and comprehensive account of the history and spirituality of Skellig Michael. You can read it online here.
This very short video offers stunning aerial footage of Skellig Michael, courtesy of photographer Peter Cox.
"The most fantastic and impossible rock in the world: …the Skelligs are pinnacled, crocketed, spired, arched, caverned, minaretted; and these gothic extravagances are not curiosities of the islands: they are the islands: there is nothing else. The rest of the cathedral may be under the sea for all I know…An incredible, impossible, mad place…I tell you the thing does not belong to any world that you and I have lived and worked in: it is part of our dream world." George Bernard Shaw.
"The most fantastic and impossible rock in the world: …the Skelligs are pinnacled, crocketed, spired, arched, caverned, minaretted; and these gothic extravagances are not curiosities of the islands: they are the islands: there is nothing else. The rest of the cathedral may be under the sea for all I know…An incredible, impossible, mad place…I tell you the thing does not belong to any world that you and I have lived and worked in: it is part of our dream world." George Bernard Shaw.
Just over eight minutes long, this video - made by the Environmental Protection Agency, provides an introduction to the ecology and monastic tradition of the island.
"The island of Skellig Michael lies at the extreme north-western edge of Europe, rising from the Atlantic Ocean almost 12 km west of the lveragh Peninsula in County Kerry. It is the most spectacularly situated of all Early Medieval island monastic sites, particularly the isolated hermitage perched on narrow, human-made terraces just below the South Peak." UNESCO.
"The island of Skellig Michael lies at the extreme north-western edge of Europe, rising from the Atlantic Ocean almost 12 km west of the lveragh Peninsula in County Kerry. It is the most spectacularly situated of all Early Medieval island monastic sites, particularly the isolated hermitage perched on narrow, human-made terraces just below the South Peak." UNESCO.
Nine minute documentary about the Monastery, 650 feet above the sea, by Jan Michael Ringlever.
"All the physical components of the ideal small monastery exist on Skellig: isolation, difficulty in accessing the site, living spaces, buildings for worship and plots for food production. Here, amongst dramatic and unique settings, the indigenous stone architecture of a past millennium is intact." From UNESCO, All About World Heritage Sites.
"All the physical components of the ideal small monastery exist on Skellig: isolation, difficulty in accessing the site, living spaces, buildings for worship and plots for food production. Here, amongst dramatic and unique settings, the indigenous stone architecture of a past millennium is intact." From UNESCO, All About World Heritage Sites.
30-minute video by Lightkeepers Films, culminating at the Hermitage, over 700 feet above the sea.
"...one of the most daring architectural expressions of early Irish monasticism: a hermitage built virtually in the air on the treacherous ledges of an Atlantic rock rising straight up from the ocean to an altitude of 218 metres". From The Forgotten Hermitage of Skellig Michael by Walter Horn et al.
"...one of the most daring architectural expressions of early Irish monasticism: a hermitage built virtually in the air on the treacherous ledges of an Atlantic rock rising straight up from the ocean to an altitude of 218 metres". From The Forgotten Hermitage of Skellig Michael by Walter Horn et al.
Trailer for "Star Wars: The Force Awakens". It and its sequel, " The Last Jedi", both feature Skellig Michael as a location.
"We needed to find somewhere completely from another time and place.Skellig Michael is an island off the coast of Ireland. We were completely blown away by it." "It's just indescribably beautiful". "It's a miracle, this place. We are indescribably honoured to be here". Some of the cast and crew of "Star Wars".
"We needed to find somewhere completely from another time and place.Skellig Michael is an island off the coast of Ireland. We were completely blown away by it." "It's just indescribably beautiful". "It's a miracle, this place. We are indescribably honoured to be here". Some of the cast and crew of "Star Wars".
Forgotten Hermitage in the Desert of the Sea“The Forgotten Hermitage of Skellig Michael” by Walter Horn, Grellan D. Rourke, Jenny W. Marshall, and Paddy O’Leary [University of California Press, 1990]
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