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Copyright ©
2011 Ken Stuart, All Rights Reserved
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During the early Middle Ages, a group of monks established a tiny monastery atop Skellig Michael, a tiny craggy island some nine miles (15km) off the southwest coast of Ireland.
This site has long been on my list of must-visit places, since studying the archaeology of the period during the late 1980s. The preservation of the beehive huts here is extraordinary, mostly because of the inaccessibility of the site.
Monks living here desired to get away from secular influences and temptations of the mainland, and no doubt found what they wanted in this remote, desolate locale that can never have supported very many of them at one time.
More information about the site can be found on Wikipedia. The trip out by small boat took some 90 minutes and included a visit to a smaller island nearby, home to numerous seabirds and marine mammals.
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