Odysseus Abroad: Skellig Michael, Kerry (Part 8) Ireland

Glengarrif - Skellig - Parknasilla - The Mountains

Beehive Hut on Skellig Michael

The world baked in 2023 almost reaching 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial temperature for the year (already reaching the target of limiting climate change per the Paris Agreement of 2015), partly driven by an El Nino cycle, but mostly by human induces greenhouse gas accumulated in the atmosphere. The impact on Ireland was a miserable and drenched summer of rain, often unusually dense even for the watery isle, causing flooding including in my home town Tralee. As a youth fifty years ago I recall major hydrological projects to mitigate the constant flooding of the Lee river through town - designed for centuries ahead, but overrun already in 2023, causing much damage throughout town center. Warmer climate puts more energy in the Atlantic ready to pummel Ireland and England with even more excessive rains, while many other parts of the world wither in draught. The future is unpredictable however, as the irony for Ireland in the longer term is that it may experience a different side of climate change, the negative side. With the gulf stream slowing and it's kinetic energy having maintained a meter higher sea level on Ireland's coast that at New York, our coast may get a reprieve of half a meter back, mitigating some effects of the global rise, and with the heat engine of the gulf stream also declining, we may become cooler. We times our visit perfectly for ten days in Kerry early September just as the weather broke for a beautiful late summer spell of sunshine and unusual warmth driven by a rare Saharan wind bringing high smog of red dust and orange sunsets (while these are common in mainland Europe, they are rare in Ireland).

Conor met us at Schiphol on his way from USA and we continued on to Cork Airport and a drive down to Glengarriff in Cork near the Kerry county border and a wonderful environment to see what Ireland would have looked like before the green desertification of intensive farming eliminated most trees and biodiversity. The gnarly woods there are temperate rain forest which never really dry out, even in good weather and maintain a whole range of trees, parasitic vines, insects and think wed of mycelia in rich humus made from recycles trees and leaves, pushing a range of mushrooms and fungus above ground to share DNA and reproduce and show they have conquered their latest prize, the ancient carcass of felled Oak.

Out on Garnish island, a short ferry ride away in the bay shaped ice carved Devonian sandstone, deep and shallow changing shape in the tides, there was a bit more structure put into nature than wonderful nature itself found in the nearby forrests. With Italian gardens, Grecian temples, Bryce House, a Martello Tower and many exotic tree and plant special imported to make it in the mild temperate climate of the south. Tons of soil and fertilizer were needed to build up the thin humus of the ricky isle, stripped bare from sea salt and winter storms historically before becoming. We swam in the deep cool clear seawater of Pol Gorm (Blue Pool) near high tide as the evening sun declined, still warm enough to dry us off as we viewed the bay from Deidra's Lookout. It seems almost anything can grow in the moist temperate climate special to the south coast. Nearby the Glengarrif Bamboo Park is home to an amazing range of grasses, tree ferns, palms, bamboo and exotic trees from around the world. Developed since 1999 upon a century old garden and modeled upon a park in southern France, Serge & Claudine de Tribault brought the exotic collection together over the decades and set upon a wonderful peninsula with great views of the bay. A more natural arrangement of native trees and plants exist at the Glengarrif Park a little north or town and a great place to hike, an example of what much of Ireland would have liked like before human habitation six thousand years ago.

I took a day trip up across the haunting Caha Pass through the impressive Turner Tunnel to Kerry and Kilgarvin, home of the famous Healy Rae political dynasty, the roads improving on the way. Nothing underpins political power like good roads without potholes and as a testament to Healy Rae power, there is a marked improvement on the way to town. Just south along the Slaheny River was the destination, The Kilgarvin Motor Museum. John Mitchell hosted my visit, I was the only visitor, so we were able to talk through the wonderful collection of cars at ease with no time pressure. John was born on a farm in Devon in 1945 and relays many memories from his time on a farm there in a book "Cornwall to Kerry". After a move to Wicklow, his parents eventually bought a farm in Kilgarvin which currently houses the car museum. They operated a garage out of the farm initially and eventually a full service garaage in town. A collection of cars ensued reflecting a genuine passion for mechanics and the innovation years of motor development. Most were bought and restored, a few donated. The collection contains many British models, some of which I had owned, from the Mini to Jaguar and Rolls Royce. We had a great discussion on the notoriously unreliable Lucas Electronics and the smooth Skinner Union (SU) Carburettors based on diaphragm and principle of constant velocity rather than constant Venturi, upon which most other carburetors are built. Returning to Glengarrif following the remote single track road over Priest's Leap pass was a wonderful experience. Fortunate to meet no other cars on the way I had clear passage on the narrow road with long sections impassable by two cars between rocky ledge and steep drop-off. At 463 meters the pass is the highest in Munster and brings haunting scenery.

Following our stay in Glengarrif we spent a week in Tralee staying at a house in the countryside near Chute Hall, which was coincidentally just a few doors from our one of my friends growing up and where I spend time. We often explored the woodlands and countryside in the area. Also nearby was the car-scrap yards of Tigh Dowd and his brother, where I also spent time looking for parts for my various cars from 1984-1986. A little to the west on the north side of the road stands grand gateway on the north side which was the entrance to the 19th century mansion of the Chute family, also known as Tullygarrin House, which later fell into disrepair and had been demolished. Nearby stands an ohm stone. Bronze Age artifacts were also found in the area by turf cutters indicating a history of population at least four thousand years ago. The house we rented was marked in town on the map, so it was accidental we spent the week staying in an old hangout of mine. Apparently the renter moves the location of the house to ward off the local party renters who emerged during Covid.

Our friends Freddie & Alice visited Kerry for a few says, staying on the bay at Barrow House. We had plans to visit Skellig Island, but on the first day we drive across to the McGillycuddy Reeks on the Lough Accouse side and hiked Carrauntoohil. It was a wonderful day but windy. Usually the wind comes from the west, such that when high on the mountain one can get protection by hiking in the shade of the ridge up to the peak, but on this day the wind came forcefully directly from the south. We made it to Cahar Peak on the south side, but decided not to go further after I had scouted down to "Howling Peak" over which the wind screamed and being that the traverse ridge was exposed to the wind we thought best not to proceed, especially as the could had descended and rain started. Regardless we had a beautiful day on the mountain.

The following morning we drive down to Port Magee for our boat to Skellig Island, but found departure was delayed a few hours due to the remnants of the strong south wind which affected landing on the island. We took advantage of the delay to drive over to Valentia to visit tetrapod tracks, two parallel tracks clearly visible on a slab of Devonian sandstone on the north coast.

Devonian Tetrapod Tracks: Dr Ivan Stossel was already a prolific fossil hunter in his youth and a difficult assignment in the summer of 1992 to survey for fossils on the Iveragh Peninsula from Caharsiveen, known for being a desert of sorts for the subject. On his bike in the August rain he toured Valentia Island, crossing over on the new bridge from Port Magee, getting drenched and finding slim pickings. One particularly rainy day before he returned home he came across a few small shallow holes arranged in parallel lines. Clearing some debris over the following days, with a break in the weather, he uncovered what was the oldest trace of sea creatures walking on land, some 400 million years ago and earlier than was thought possible.

Kerry was near the equator at the time and not a mountainous uplift as today, but a large river delta more like the Mekong today. Dr Stossel thought the creature evolved from fish living on riverbanks who developed their fins into arms and legs to maneuver water levels, interspersed with land and vegetation. They were salamander like creatures with more than five fingers and a belly which marked a trail through the mud (and a tail which may also have caused the markings). As humans, we can match every bone in our body to those in fish from whom we evolved and it is thought provoking to witness these special tracks on Valencia marking one of many lucky breaks we got on that journey, becoming land animals. It took twenty years for Dr Stossel's discovery to be accepted as standard geological science, supported by many more such discoveries globally supporting the dating of sea to land evolution to the mid Devonian period.

Being the last boat to depart from Portage was an advantage, as the 180 people allowed to visit daily would already be departing the island as we arrived. Sceillec may be derived from Norse for steep rock, which describes Skellig well. While the sandstone formed as a flat delta during the Devonian (420-360 million years ago), tectonic shifts pushed upwards forming mountains in the late Paleozoic era (360-260 million years ago), huge folds formed and the horizontal layers of sandstone were reshaped into vertical or angled rock which wore down under erosion and later glaciation to reveal pointy peaks, visible in a line from Carrauntoohil on the McGillycuddy Reeks westward to Puffin Island, Lemon Rock, Little Skellig and finally Skellig Michael. 15,000 years ago sea level was 100 meters lower, one could walk to Skellig, and it would have been an impressive sight, this angular peak pointing sharply upward from the flat land surrounding. By 8,000 years ago Skellig was an island protected in isolation by the wild Atlantic. Little is known of its early history, but for a few short references in the various Annals of Ireland. In 823 the vikings raided, taking away the the abbot, Eitgal, as recorded in the Annals of Inishfallen. Monks and some form of a monastic settlement probably grew organically on the island from many centuries earlier, but there is little direct evidence. By the tenth century it was dedicated to Saint Michael.

In all the annals of Rome one could be forgiven for missing the news that one more religious nutcase was executed in Judaea by the Roman Governor Pontias Pilot under the rule of Tiberias. Just a few days after the execution came the conspiracy theories, people believing that they had seen the very same Jesus in public (long hair, beard, white tunic - could have been anybody!) and the rest is history with some two and half billion followers some two thousand years later. Christianity seems to have spread like wild fire in the early centuries, although it was reframed regularly, famously by Saint Augustine of Hippo, few Christians today practice the beliefs of Jesus and the religion had quite some headwinds during the Middle Ages after the fall of Rome, it was lucky to survive. These were the golden years of Christianity in Ireland, from the 5th to 9th centuries effectively subsuming paganism completely and becoming a vast depository of it's practice in the many monasteries and learned monks who made Ireland home. The most famous was Saint Patrick to whom is attributed the spread of Christianity to Ireland in the mid fifth century, although there other monks also at the time it is Patrick who is best known due to his own writing, his Confessions. Hearing voices, repeating prayers a hundred times day and night, being a loner all indicate a certain psychiatric disposition common in the uber religious, and for which today he would most likely be diagnosed with schizophrenia and obsessive compulsive disorder. Ireland was a popular home for such religious loner types during these centuries and where better to find a place to dedicate yourself, but for an remote island eleven miles offshore, the Great Skellig, little more than a steep rock, barren but for an acre of grass and copious flocks of seabirds.

The monks of Skellig Michael would have lives off the birds of high and fish of the rich deep blue ocean surrounding its base, plus a few livestock grazing god's little acre on the saddle, one of the few flat places on the island. The monastery comprises a number of dry stone beehive huts for accommodation, plus two chapels, a graveyard and terraces with amazing view over the ocean and back to land and the hills of Kerry. For those who needed even more isolation, there was also the Hermitage, a small enclave located up the steep side of the south peak. The island was accessible during summer months via the traditional Irish rowing boat called a "currach", a long sleek wooden frame covered in cow hide, or more recently tarpaulin sealed with hot petroleum tar. These were used by all the islanders along the coast, including the famous Blaskets. Supplies and even cattle were transported on these currachs. Winter brings high seas, and sometimes even in summer also, and the islands can be cut off for many months or a whole season at a time. Apparently the weather was more benign in earlier years, but deteriorated in the past number of centuries, making Skellig more difficult to habituate and societal changes under British rule, including the famines, left the island uninhabited, but for the few summer visitors. Ownership has handed to the Butler family of Waterville for the rent of a few birds a year and by 1820 was taken over by the Port Authority, who built a lighthouse on the upper west side which was replaced later with a more easily accessible lighthouse on the southwest side which was manned for most of the intervening years until automated in 1987.

At the end of another great week in Kerry Annette, Conor and I spend three days in South Kerry in a townhouse at the Parnasilla Hotel, a grand old world hotel built by the railroad as a destination point. The grounds of the hotel is worth a visit itself, with extensive trails along the rock islands swept by daily tides.