Skellig Michael · Six Hundred Years on Rock

Skellig Michael lies in the Atlantic off the south-west of Ireland, with nothing above the sea but a cone of rock. The monks on the island built themselves beehive stone huts and churches in dry stone, and lived there from the sixth century to the twelfth.

With no fresh water they caught it from cracks in the rock; with no timber they slept in stone. The island later became a filming location for Star Wars.

You reach it by boat, and the boats do not sail in bad conditions. The boatmen say: the boat waits below and you climb up yourself; once you are down again, you know where you were standing.

Historical Mysteries / Kerry · Ireland / 6th century