Dingle Peninsula, Ireland
Dingle and Dartmouth are a world apart, yet this is only the third day of our voyage. We are learning fast that the British and Irish Isles are home to multiple layers of cultural diversity. Leaving Bishop’s Rock lighthouse astern, yesterday evening we traversed the Celtic Sea overnight to arrive off the coast of County Kerry in southwestern Ireland by daybreak. Immediately after breakfast, we positioned close to two rocky outcrops known as the Skelligs, the greater and the lesser, each with a story to tell.
The Greater Skellig, also known as Skellig Michael, is the apparently unlikely location for an early Celtic Christian monastery dating back to the sixth century. From the deck it was possible to train binoculars on a cluster of beehive huts, corbelled stone structures that served as contemplative cells for individual members of the monastic community. The monastery had a small garden but the setting was undoubtedly harsh; for a good part of the year Atlantic spray would envelop the community. The monastic tradition here is eastern, deriving from the traditions of the Desert Fathers. After the fall of Rome, the light of Christian civilization was kept burning in the far west of Europe, so that in the Celtic nations of the Europe’s Atlantic shore there were no dark Ages but rather a glorious Early Christian period that produced such treasures as the Book of Kells. This was an austere, ascetic tradition but also an erudite and artistic one.
The Lesser Skellig is one of the world’s largest gannetries, housing a population of tens of thousands of North Atlantic Gannets. At this time of year, at the height of the breeding season, their multiple ocean plunges in search of food are highly dramatic. The gannet, with its distinctive nicotine bib and inky wing tips, has such keen eyesight that it can locate its prey from a great height, plunging to catch a fish with extraordinary force. Not only does it have special shock absorbing neck muscles but its eye compensates for the refraction of the water.
With a rising swell and winds coming from the southwest, we repositioned through Blasket Sound to the small fishing village of Ballydavid to meet the busses that would take us to the town of Dingle. Our destination was Murphy’s Bar and an obligatory pint of Guinness but we earned our refreshment with a prior cultural stop at the ecclesiastical site of Kilmalkader, a Celtic Christian site with associations with Saint Brendan.
