THE SKELLIGS—ST. MICHAEL'S ROCK.
From Valencia, or from across the channel at Portmagee, where there is a thriving fish-curing industry, the Skelligs can be reached in favourable weather. Standing high above the green billows that encircle them with collars of white foam, they repay every trouble taken to inspect them. The Little Skellig, a fantastic rock, with a great arch like a flying buttress under which for centuries the seas have churned deep, is almost inaccessible. It is a great breeding ground for gannet, with which, during the breeding season, its sides are white as the waves below.
Photo—Lawrence, Dublin.
Skellig.
So unused are these magnificent birds to being disturbed by intruders that even when within oar's length of them, they remain passive and unscared. The Great Skellig swings high its cliffs seven hundred feet above the water. Clinging to the ridge of its impressive rocks "like swallows' nests" are the round roofs of the beehive cells which of old formed a citadel of Christianity. To Saint Michael the Archangel, guardian against all the powers of darkness, the isle is dedicated. Its history is of old date, for here Milesius buried the beloved son, Ir, that the thieving waters robbed of his soul. Here "the slanting, full-sailing ships" of Daire, on their way to the great battle of Ventry Harbour, paused in their march along the deep. Here, too, in recording times, was the great hero-king of the Norse, Olaf Iryggveson, baptized.
A little cove, deep in the recess of a cavern, makes a landing stage, only to be attempted at favourable times. An easy path leads halfway round the island; then, mounting a flight of steps, the visitor beholds, spread before him, a green valley, the one patch of richness on the desolate rock. This is Christ's Saddle, from which, with reverent hearts, the "Way of the Cross" may be traversed, ending in the heart of Skellig-Michael. Each of the fourteen Stations have descriptive Gaelic names, such as "The Stone of Pain," where our Saviour falls the first time; "The Rock of the Woman's Piercing Caoine," where His Mother and the Holy Women have met. Lonely and deserted, none should enter these hallowed places but with feelings of reverence.