This is the 11th of the “Travels Down Memory Lane Series”. Over the last couple of years, there hasn’t been an opportunity for holidays away. So I decided to look at some of the posts I’d planned to write, and for various reasons, I hadn’t.
There is nothing as much fun as taking a walk down memory lane and revisiting and sharing the photographs and journals from our travels.
On Valentia Island, we visited the Skellig Experience, part of the Ring of Kerry.
“The Skellig Rocks are renowned for their scenery, sea bird colonies, long-lived lighthouse service, their Early Christian Monastic architecture and rich underwater life. In an era of the past 1400 years, the name of Skellig has travelled to the ends of the known world.
The two Skellig Island’s – Skellig Michael and Small Skellig – stand like fairy tale castles in the Atlantic ocean 12km (8 miles) southwest of Valentia.”
Skellig Michael is the spectacular setting featured in Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi.
We walked around the visitor centre and watched the film about Skellig Michael.
The aerial views in the film were amazing. Imagine building 2,300 stone steps as well as a small beehive monastery! An extraordinary feat by the monks.
The monastery was attacked four times by the Norse Vikings. The monks finally left Skellig Michael about 1200 AD to live in Ballinskellig Monastery!
Having enjoyed our visit to the Skellig Experience, we enjoyed a light lunch and bought a couple of gifts in the gift shop.
The steep, narrow, winding road that leads to Valentia Lighthouse was an experience in itself!
We stopped so I could photograph an old ruined building as well as the lighthouse.
It was beautiful, with sea pink (thrift) carpeting the stone walls.
We continued around Valentia Island and came across an old fishing boat with peeling paint and rust. I do love rust and peeling paint. But the boat is a sad remnant of a diminishing fishing fleet…
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