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About Skellig Michael

Following detailed sites inspections and discussions with ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites) Skellig Michael was inscribed onto the World Heritage List in 1996.  Skellig Michael

Skellig Michael is the most spectacularly situated of all the early medieval island monastic sites and it comprises a well-preserved monastery and remote hermitage. The island’s isolation has helped to preserve and protect the monastic remains. Their state of preservation and authenticity makes Skellig Michael of immense and immeasurable importance. It represents a unique cultural achievement illustrating a significant period of history and a civilisation which has disappeared.

 Skellig Michael is also internationally renowned as one of the most important sites for breeding seabirds in Ireland. The steep rocky slopes and cliffs provide nesting places for species such as Fulmar, Kittiwake and Guillemot, while Storm-petrel, Manx Shearwater and Puffin nest in burrows and other holes throughout the island.

World Heritage sites are selected by UNESCO as the best international examples of cultural and natural heritage. In 1996 Skellig Michael was inscribed by UNESCO on the World Heritage List and is one of three World Heritage sites on the island of Ireland. This listing recognises the universal significance of this cultural landscape and the importance of its protection to the highest international standards.

ICOMOS in their recommendation for inscription in 1996 of Skellig Michael onto the UNESCO World Heritage List on the basis of criteria (iii) and (iv), stated that “Skellig Michael is an outstanding, and in many ways, unique, example of early religious settlement deliberately sited on a pyramidal rock in the ocean, preserved because of a remarkable environment. It illustrates as no other site can, the extremes of a Christian monasticism characterizing much of North Africa, the Near East, and Europe.”

History of Skellig Michael

The word Sceillic means a rock, particularly a steep rock. Its first reference in history is in legend as the burial place of Ir, son of Milesius, who was drowned during the landing of the Milesians. Charles Smith, writing in 1756, refers to the monastery being founded by St. Fionan, who lived in the sixth century. Skellig is referred to in the Annals of Inisfallen under the year 824 and also in the Annals of Ulster giving an account of the plunder of the monastery by the Vikings. In 882 the Annals of Inisfallen refer to the death of “Flann, son of Cellach, abbot of Scelec”.

It is suggested in references to the monastery in the Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters that the monastery was dedicated to St Michael at some time in the 10th century. It was customary in a monastery to build a new church to celebrate the dedication, and the oldest part of the church, known as St Michael's Church, fits architecturally into this period.

In the early 13th century, however, a general climatic deterioration resulted in colder weather and increased storms on the seas around Skellig. This, along with a shift in the Irish church from a monastic to a diocesan structure, signaled the end of Irish eremitic island colonies, with the result that the community of Skellig Michael eventually moved to the mainland. This was probably not a single event but is likely to have happened over a period of time.

The island probably continued to be used as a dependency of Ballinskelligs Abbey, the island monastery being occupied by some monks during the better months of the year. Skellig Michael remained in the hands of the Augustinian monks until 1578 when, as a result of the Desmond rebellions, Queen Elizabeth I dissolved certain monasteries that were under the protection of the Earl of Desmond. The Skellig islands thus passed into secular hands to the Butler family. Although the monastery ceased to exsit, the island continued to be used as a place of pilgrimage.

In the early 1820s the Corporation for Preserving and Improving the Port of Dublin [predecessor of the Commissioners of Irish Lights] purchased the island from John Butler of Waterville under a compulsory purchase order for the purpose of erecting two lighthouses on the Atlantic side.

In 1880 the Office of Public Works took the monastic remains into guardianship and undertook a project for the repair of collapsed structures. Since that time the Office of Public Works has continued in their efforts to maintain and preserve the monastic remains.

The State purchased the island in 1989 from the Commissioners of Irish Lights, with the exception of the lower [working] lighthouse and its curtileage and the helipad area with its adjacent store.

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