WEBVTT - Skellig Michael 0:00:01.160 --> 0:00:04.120 Welcome to steph you missed in history class from how 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:13.480 Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:16.840 I'm Holly Frying and I'm Trac B. Wilson. Uh. If 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:19.120 you are a Star Wars fan, and frankly even if 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:23.120 you're not, you have probably seen scenes of Luke Skywalker 0:00:23.239 --> 0:00:25.840 in The Force Awakens and in promotional materials for The 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:29.120 Last Jedi, where he and eventually Ray are standing on 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:32.879 an island with ancient looking structures on it that is 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:36.800 a real island that's not a set. And those structures 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:39.559 are also not sets that were built for the film. 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:42.120 They are part of a real thing that is ancient. 0:00:42.520 --> 0:00:45.680 Skellic Michael, the island where those scenes were shot is 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:48.280 a historic site with a fascinating history all its own. 0:00:48.320 --> 0:00:50.960 It's also got kind of a nice juxtaposition because a 0:00:50.960 --> 0:00:53.479 big chunk of its history is is much older, and 0:00:53.479 --> 0:00:55.240 then there's a newer history of some of them more 0:00:55.240 --> 0:01:00.240 modern things that have been built on the island. Um. So, 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:02.720 since I have Star Wars rabies and I can barely 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:04.800 manage to contain myself while I wait for the Last 0:01:04.880 --> 0:01:07.959 Jedia premiere, uh, and because this really is a legitimately 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:11.840 very very interesting historical site. I thought it might be 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:14.399 fun to delve into this location in its rich history 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:18.560 for the podcast. Yeah, if you were concerned, based on 0:01:18.600 --> 0:01:20.960 the number of times that we said the last Jedi, 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:23.039 we're not going to be talking about anything in the 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:26.560 movie at all on the island at all. That's pretty 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:29.440 much all the Star Wars talk except a story about 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:32.560 filming at the end, and even that has nothing to 0:01:32.600 --> 0:01:35.039 do so we're not going to spoil anyone or anything 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:39.280 related there no Star Wars. You would have had to 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:41.480 have not gone to see the Fourth Awakens yet for 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:44.800 that to have been a spoiler, which I don't know. 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:47.440 Maybe we didn't, but at this point, if you haven't 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:50.200 gone to see the Force Awakens, then I think you 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:52.440 would have to have been in media blackout because it's 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:59.240 appeared on so many like magazine covers, television, tromos um. 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:02.040 You know, interview us are often inter cut if you 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:05.840 see them on television with shots of this island. So 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:08.120 it's I don't think we're giving anything away. I feel 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:13.600 confident that we have skirted any well. I think if 0:02:13.639 --> 0:02:18.240 you have not yet seen Force Awakens, you probably don't 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:22.760 care about Star Wars spoilers. Right, none of which are 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:24.840 in here anyway. We are literally just talking about the 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:27.440 history of this. I want to be very clear, Okay. 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:30.640 Skelling Michael is one of two islands that make up 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:35.080 the Skellic Islands. The word skelling derives from the Irish 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:38.480 word for steep rock. And then the other island is 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:40.560 the smaller one of the two. It's called Little Island 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:43.600 and it's closed to visitors. Sometimes we'll also see you 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:47.720 skelling Michael called Great Skelling yep. Also you'll see it 0:02:47.800 --> 0:02:50.200 spelled in various different ways. We're going with kind of 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:55.320 the most basic, uh, globally facing spelling that gets used 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:59.519 a lot. It's probably the americanized spelling. That's just the 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:01.280 scoop on that. If you see it spelled a different way, 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:05.520 that's why. And Skelling Michael is uh seven miles that's 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:08.520 eleven point six kilometers west of the edge of Ireland's 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:12.680 Eva Peninsula in County Kerry, and the highest elevation of 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:15.440 the island is seven hundred and fifteen feet that's about 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:18.639 two hundred and eighteen meters. And this island is tiny. 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:21.560 It is less than a square mile in area. So 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:27.040 if you do hectares. That's nine hectares. The Minister for 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:31.160 Art Heritage and the Geltacht owned Skelling Michael on behalf 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:34.240 of the Irish people. And there's also a lighthouse and 0:03:34.280 --> 0:03:36.560 support buildings for the lighthouse on the southern end of 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:39.200 the island, as well as a helipad. And this portion 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:42.120 of the island falls outside of the ownership arrangement mentioned above. 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:44.000 We'll get a little bit more into that in a bit. 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:48.000 The geological makeup of Skelling Michael is what's called Old 0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:52.400 Red sandstone, sedimentary layers of rock deposited somewhere between three 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:55.320 hundred sixty and three hundred seventy four million years ago 0:03:55.600 --> 0:03:58.160 during the Devonian period, when Ireland was part of a 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:04.520 much larger continent. It's the westernmost European instance of Devonian sandstone, 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:08.200 which can be found throughout Britain and Ireland, Scandinavia and Greenland. 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:13.280 It's also in portions of Canada. Skelling Michael also has 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:16.479 to twin peaks with a valley in the middle which 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:20.120 has come to me known as Christ's Saddle Uh and 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:23.400 that hellapad that we mentioned briefly is for emergencies only. 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:25.400 That's not a standard way to get on and off 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:29.040 the island or special cases um So from the middle 0:04:29.080 --> 0:04:32.760 of May to September, visitors may travel to Skelling Michael, 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:36.040 but only by boat and it is for davisits exclusively 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:38.400 and I should also mention that sometimes if they have 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:40.520 had damage in the winter, they will shorten that window 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:44.919 that visitors can come. Tourists also cannot stay overnight on 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:48.640 the island and there are no amenities. Basically, you you 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:50.080 go for a little while and you get back on 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:52.480 the boat and you leave. Uh. The island is also 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:56.800 designated a statutory nature reserve, so no animal visitors are 0:04:56.800 --> 0:05:00.040 allowed and no trash can be left behind the The 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:03.800 animals that most commonly benefit from the islands reserve status 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:08.200 are birds. Seabirds often nest there during their respective breeding seasons. 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:11.479 Skellic Michael is considered one of the most important breeding 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:14.360 grounds for birds in Ireland, and for some species it's 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:17.120 one of the most important places in the world. The 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:20.719 storm Petrol and makes Sheerwater have some of their largest 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:23.080 breeding groups on the island, and it's also home to 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:28.680 puffins which I love and kitty Wake among others. Paragram 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:32.200 falcons also nest there although not every year, and there 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:35.720 are a few mammals on the island as well, including 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:40.640 gray seals, house mice, and rabbits. Also of interest in 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:44.000 terms of its natural makeup is the lichen that grows 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:46.920 on Skelling Michael. There are actually one hundred and twenty 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:50.760 eight different species of lichen found on this tiny rocky island, 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:53.760 and to like in a colas fungi, that's enough to 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:57.400 classify it as a nationally important site for lichen growth 0:05:57.680 --> 0:06:00.240 based on a conservation study that was conducted in two 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:05.599 thousand nine. To get to more of the human made structures, 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:08.960 Skelling Michael is also home to a monastery that was 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:10.960 built hundreds of years ago, and we're going to get 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:13.640 into the history of that in more detailed descriptions of 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:17.080 the monastery and just a bit but at first. But 0:06:17.200 --> 0:06:21.000 first we're going to talk about how it exists there today. 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:24.000 The settlement has two different segments, and the first is 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:27.200 the monastery itself, which is built on the islands east side, 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:31.159 high up on sloping areas of rock. The monastery has 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:35.080 three access points, all of which involve navigating a lot 0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:39.040 of steps. A lot of steps, like they actually say 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:41.200 in the visit any of the visitors stuff that you 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:44.640 may read, like the visitors advisories like please don't come 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:47.040 if you're not ready to take on like six hundred steps, 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:52.120 because it is vigorous work and it's not there's not 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:54.080 an easy way up. There's like I said, there are 0:06:54.080 --> 0:06:57.200 no amenities, there's no elevator, there are no chair lifts. 0:06:57.360 --> 0:07:00.000 You have to handle it yourself. And those steps are 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:03.520 really amazing because they're cut from the rock of the island, 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:05.760 from the landing point where you would first step foot 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:08.039 on the island up to the highest point where water 0:07:08.120 --> 0:07:11.920 can possibly reach, and then above that height the steps continue, 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:14.760 but from then on they're made of dry stone masonry. 0:07:14.920 --> 0:07:19.800 The structures within the monastery included church, two oratories, seven 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:24.760 beehive cells, water cisterns, and a cemetery. And locked which 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:29.040 I have also heard Irish people say locked Locked as 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:32.679 a square or rectangular structure built with layers of stones 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:35.080 but no mortar. While they have been found at a 0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:39.000 number of Irish Early Christian monastic sites, their function isn't 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:42.000 entirely clear. There have been several theories, including that they 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:45.440 may have marked graves of important holy people or were 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:48.120 used to house relics or had some sort of social 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:52.520 spiritual function, and there are also two large garden terraces 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:56.320 and retaining walls which form the foundation of the entire site. 0:07:56.600 --> 0:08:00.000 The second area of construction is separate from the monastery itself, 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:03.280 on ledges of the South Peak. It's composed of several 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:08.120 structures and including an oratory, altar, locked and water cisterns. 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:11.720 Steps cut out of the rock provide access to these structures, 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:15.440 which are described in archaeological stratigraphic report written in two 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:20.240 eleven as daringly constructed. I sort of feel that way 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:23.600 about everything. I'm skelling, Michael. It's so beautiful, but I 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:26.120 don't know that I am its target visitor, because I 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:28.000 think I would spend the whole time screaming in fear 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:30.360 that I would just fall. It's all very steep. That 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:33.120 name is apt uh, And we're gonna go a little 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:35.840 bit deeper into talking about those daring structures that Tracy 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:38.800 just mentioned, uh and where they fit into the island's history. 0:08:38.840 --> 0:08:46.559 But first we're gonna pause for a quick sponsor break. 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:50.439 The first known reference to skelling Michael goes all the 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:54.560 way back to sevent b c. It's referenced is the 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:58.240 place where the Prince Ire, fifth son of Milicius, died 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:00.400 when his ship was separated from the rest of his 0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:03.680 fleet during a storm, crashed upon a rock and sank. 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:07.719 This is, however, a folkloric accounts, so it remains unverified. 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:11.400 There's another unverified story of Skellic Michael set in the 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:14.839 fifth century. In this instance, after a conflict between the 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:17.560 Kings of Castle and the Kings of Munster, the king 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:21.040 of West Munster named Dwach is said to have fled 0:09:21.120 --> 0:09:24.679 to Skellic Michael. And while this event is written as 0:09:24.720 --> 0:09:27.800 having happened in the fifth century, that account was recorded 0:09:27.800 --> 0:09:30.400 in either the eighth or the ninth century, so it's 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:33.439 it's accuracy is hard to gauge. We know for certain, 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:36.280 based on the structures that we talked about earlier, that 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:39.520 monks moved into the island at some point, but exactly 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:43.520 when that happened also isn't clear. The earliest estimates place 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:46.160 at at the place the start of the monastery somewhere 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:49.360 in the sixth century, although it could have been built 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:52.160 as late as the eighth century and then the earliest 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:55.480 known reference to the monastery is in an Annal entry 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:58.520 from the year eight hundred twenty four, which describes a 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:01.439 Norse raid on sc Like Michael, Yeah, there's a lot 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:06.679 of disparate accounts that that place that at different times, 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:09.240 but it's somewhere in there. I think most people tend 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:11.400 to favor the earlier thing because a lot of the 0:10:11.400 --> 0:10:13.599 accounts that happened later on, and we'll talk about it 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:16.520 in a minute, suggests that it was already functioning. The 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:19.559 position of this monastery is actually quite well chosen. It's 0:10:19.600 --> 0:10:23.160 six hundred feet above sea level, and where it sits 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:26.040 on the island and in relation to its peaks, offers 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:28.920 some natural shelter, and it has plenty of stones to 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:32.199 use in building, so the monks could access stone from 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:34.800 right there on the island to build these structures, and 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:38.880 it enabled relatively easy water collection, so channels were cut 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:42.800 into sloping stone to direct water right into cisterns that 0:10:42.840 --> 0:10:45.800 they had placed, and the two primary cisterns that were 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:48.160 used were built to hold roughly a hundred and twenty 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:50.800 gallons that's about four hundred and fifty liters of water. 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:54.160 One of the unique aspects of the monastery is the 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:57.679 cell structures that are sometimes described as as bee hives. 0:10:58.160 --> 0:11:03.960 These hives are shaped like inverted elliptic paraboloids, so not 0:11:03.960 --> 0:11:07.640 not bee hives like the flat ones in boxes that 0:11:07.679 --> 0:11:13.160 are manufactured, but the domed ones the bees would actually 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:16.400 build on their own or that you know. Sometimes people 0:11:16.480 --> 0:11:18.960 keep these in baskets that are that shaped, like an 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:23.760 inverted semi dome sort of structure. They have a doorway 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:26.360 built into the front of each of them and steps 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:28.680 that lead in and out of the doors. The beehive 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:32.200 cells are all arranged along the monasteries large oratory, but 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:34.960 there are some differences among them, and the cells are 0:11:35.120 --> 0:11:39.600 lettered for identification. Yeah, and just for clarity, um the 0:11:39.720 --> 0:11:42.840 cell letter order does not in any way pertain to 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:47.320 their age order, which I was trying to explain this 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:49.480 to to a friend and they got a little thrown 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:52.520 by that. So just know that this the A through 0:11:53.000 --> 0:11:56.599 um G does not in any way suggest that A 0:11:56.760 --> 0:12:00.240 came first and Gee was at the end. There with 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:04.840 completely separate um naming systems. So cell A is the 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:08.120 largest one. It actually has a second interior level and 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:11.240 it's believed to have been a communal space, and it's 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:13.880 quite large at the base of the structure. The walls 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:16.400 of Cell A are one point eight meters six so 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:19.840 that's almost six ft, and the interior space is about 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:22.560 fifteen by twelve point five feet that's about four point 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:25.640 six by three point eight meters, and there's an interior 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:29.400 height of sixteen feet. It's about five ms. Cells B 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:32.199 and C are smaller, they're about two thirds the size 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:36.040 of cell A. Cell D is actually no longer intact, 0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:38.520 but it was probably the oldest cell on the site. 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:43.880 Probably it collapsed before cells C was completed. Cell E 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:47.400 is bigger than B and C, but smaller than A. 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:51.920 It's it's like a word problem in the s A T. 0:12:52.640 --> 0:12:55.040 Cell F is smaller in size to B and C, 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:57.959 and it has these interior slabs that are arranged in 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:00.800 a manner that suggests it might have been a leaping area. 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:04.760 These cells were built at various points in time, and 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:07.520 they aren't homogeneous in their size as noted or in 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:11.080 the way the stone work is done. Yeah, it's pretty 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:14.079 clear evidence that they were worked on at various points 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:19.440 in time. So, uh, it's it spans some number of years. 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:22.760 There is a central church at the monastery that is St. 0:13:22.800 --> 0:13:26.040 Michael's and it's partially collapsed, and what would have been 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:27.760 its roof, which would have been made of wood, is 0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:31.559 long gone. The church appears also to have not been 0:13:31.559 --> 0:13:34.080 built all at the same time, but in two different stages, 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:37.600 the second one to expand on what was a fairly 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:40.679 small church that was built in the first phase. While 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:44.960 a prominent and impressive aspect of the monastery's design is 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:49.720 its retaining walls, they have experienced multiple structural failures throughout 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:51.400 the life of the site and beginning when it was 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:54.480 still occupied. The walls have been the focus of a 0:13:54.480 --> 0:13:58.280 lot of conservation and preservation work over the years. Yeah, 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:01.120 they're amazing, and that they really are. Are, you know, 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:04.520 holding up all of this man made structure, But they 0:14:04.559 --> 0:14:08.240 definitely are bearing the weight of that man made structure. 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:11.160 And as a consequence, sometimes they get tired and they 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:15.040 break up. Cells don't really get walls don't really get tired. 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:17.160 I know, nobody needs to tell me, but they get 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:22.600 on it. Um. So the daring structures that we referenced 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:24.600 a little while ago make up what's come to be 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:29.000 called the Hermitage, and so in the modern era, UM 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:32.120 these man made structures on Skelling Michael South Peaks, they're 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:34.680 a little bit away from the others. Were first referenced 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:37.720 in an eighteen forty one mapping survey, and then they 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:40.600 made another appearance on record in the eighteen fifties, when 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:43.560 Lord Dunraven visited the island and wrote of having seen 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:47.400 the ruins of a quadrangular building there. The South Peak 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:50.760 ruins were noted again by visiting scholars in the nineteen fifties, 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:53.480 but it actually wasn't until the nineteen eighties that a 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:55.760 study of the site was ordered by the Office of 0:14:55.800 --> 0:15:00.000 Public Works. There are three terraces that make up the hermitage. 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:03.440 There's a garden and dwelling terrace that's forty three ft 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:07.120 that's about thirteen meters long. It ranges in width from 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:09.520 six point five to thirteen feet, which is two to 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:13.160 four meters. One end of the terrace, which includes a 0:15:13.200 --> 0:15:16.160 section of the retaining wall, it's about five feet or 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:18.680 one and a half meters high, and that remains intact. 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:23.200 The other end of it, though, has collapsed. The Oratory 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:25.920 Terrorists sits at a right angle to the garden and 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:29.080 dwelling terraces, and it's about thirteen feet that's four meters 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:32.480 higher up on the peach on this terrace is a 0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:36.240 small oratory with an interior space of seven point five 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:38.880 by six point five feet that's about two point three 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:42.080 by two meters, and this terrace extends far past the 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:45.240 oratory to the east, although it is quite a narrow 0:15:45.760 --> 0:15:48.160 sort of terrace that you're you're on at that point 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:51.560 from the oratory terraces. The outer terrace used to be 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:54.560 reachable via a traverse that was chiseled from the stone 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:57.400 by the months, but in modern times it's a place 0:15:57.440 --> 0:16:00.760 that's really best visited by skilled call timer's and no 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:03.400 one else. It's treaches to navigate the ledges that you 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:05.880 have to move across. It's not clear if that outer 0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:09.080 Terrace was ever completed, and it's also not clear what 0:16:09.160 --> 0:16:13.120 its function was. Yeah, I watched a brief like newsreel 0:16:13.160 --> 0:16:14.800 of a team that was going up when they were 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:19.840 doing some preservation investigation, and it's like, look, we found handhelds. 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:24.760 Like they're literally basically just scaling up the rock face 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:27.600 until they actually found something that a human could stand on. 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:30.320 So it is not just something you would go, hey, 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:34.720 I'd like to go up there. It's a again, not 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:37.040 a place that I should maybe visit because it looks 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:41.840 terrifying um. Sometime before the early eleventh century, the island 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:45.640 monastery was dedicated to St. Michael. St. Piannon is also 0:16:45.720 --> 0:16:48.480 closely tied to the history of the monastery and may 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:51.200 have been its founder. He's often referenced as the founder, 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:53.400 but again it's all a little unclear. Records of the 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:57.200 late twelfth century indicate that the settlement was occupied and 0:16:57.280 --> 0:17:00.680 having regular mass at that point, but soon after in 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:05.159 the thirteenth century, shifting church structure in Ireland and increased 0:17:05.200 --> 0:17:08.320 instances of inclement weather on and around the island lad 0:17:08.920 --> 0:17:12.639 the monastery to be abandoned. The monks who had been 0:17:12.680 --> 0:17:15.639 living there moved to the mainland village of Balance Skelags, 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:19.119 and after that point the monastery at Skelling Michael was 0:17:19.200 --> 0:17:23.199 considered part of the Balance Skellings Monastery. Yeah, but it 0:17:23.280 --> 0:17:25.840 wasn't really, it's not believed to have been occupied after 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:28.439 that point. It just kind of was was notated as 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:33.080 part of their their larger um kind of organizational structure. 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:36.080 But again, like there had been a shift in climate 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:38.359 and they it really was not easy or safe to 0:17:38.400 --> 0:17:41.639 occupy that area any longer. From the fourteenth to the 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:45.119 sixteenth centuries. The island appears on navigational charts that were 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:49.240 used by both Italian and Iberian seafarers. The monastery was 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:52.200 officially closed in the sixteenth century with Henry the Eighths 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:55.959 dissolution of monasteries, and it passed into private ownership by 0:17:56.000 --> 0:18:00.080 a family named Butler. The Butler family retained ownership of 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:03.960 island until eight one. In November of eighteen twenty, Jay 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:07.280 Butler was approached by the government's Board of Works about 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:10.480 a permanent lease on the island so that two lighthouses 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:13.000 could be built there, and after some back and forth, 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:17.440 legal experts investigating the situation determined that Butler's legal ownership 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:21.200 of the land was not clearly documented. After an appraisal 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:24.200 of the property, the Butler estate was paid seven eighty 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:27.080 pounds for Skelling Michael and the Commissioners of Irish Lights 0:18:27.119 --> 0:18:30.080 assumed ownership of it. We're gonna talk about the lighthouses 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:32.159 in just a moment, but first we're gonna pause and 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:41.679 have another short sponsor break. Construction of the two lighthouses 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:45.920 at Skelling Michael began in August of eighteen one. Inspector 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:50.520 George Halpin designed the buildings in roadway and oversaw initial construction. 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:55.359 The lighthouse road runs from the upper lighthouse site, which 0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:59.840 is h on the western side of the island, south 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:02.919 to the coast, and then around the islands south and 0:19:02.960 --> 0:19:05.720 east edges to the east landing. There is no road 0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:08.480 along the northern shore of the island. There aren't many 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:12.120 records of the actual construction process, but both lighthouses were 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:15.280 completed and in use by the end of eighteen six. 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:18.480 The taller of the two lights was nearly four hundred 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:21.639 feet that's a hundreds above the high water mark, with 0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:25.480 a visibility range of twenty five miles or forts. The 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:28.280 lower light was a hundred seventy five ft or fifty 0:19:28.359 --> 0:19:30.800 three point three ms above the high water mark, with 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:34.960 a visibility range of eighteen miles or twenty kilometers. Both 0:19:35.040 --> 0:19:38.280 were non moving lights. Uh in a sad note in 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:41.680 eighteen sixty nine, so more than forty years into the 0:19:41.760 --> 0:19:45.280 lighthouses life, a small modern grave was added to the 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:48.840 chapel at Skelling Michael. At that point lighthouse keeper W. 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:52.440 Callahan buried two of his small children there after, both 0:19:52.440 --> 0:19:55.800 had died of an illness. He then requested and was 0:19:55.880 --> 0:19:58.520 granted a transfer elsewhere as he was concerned for the 0:19:58.520 --> 0:20:01.840 health of his remaining child. So there is one instance 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:03.840 of a modern I'm using the air quotes since it 0:20:03.880 --> 0:20:06.000 was in the eighteen hundreds, but a modern grave there 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:08.600 at the site. The upper light was in service for 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:12.040 forty four years until it was supplanted by another lighthouse 0:20:12.080 --> 0:20:15.439 north of the Skellic Islands in eighteen seventy. The lower 0:20:15.560 --> 0:20:18.760 lighthouse has remained in use. That's still in use today, 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:21.000 although there's been an update to it that we'll talk 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:23.120 about in a moment. Yeah, there's actually been a couple 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:26.560 of updates. But the Office of Public Works took possession 0:20:26.560 --> 0:20:29.960 of the monastery as a state guardianship in eighteen eighty 0:20:30.000 --> 0:20:33.400 with the intent to repair the crumbling structures and establish 0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:36.760 an ongoing plan for conservation of the site. In nineteen 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:40.040 o nine, the lower lighthouse was renovated and updated with 0:20:40.080 --> 0:20:43.280 a rotating, more powerful light. The lower light in the 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:46.840 original rubble masonry tower remained in use for a hundred 0:20:46.920 --> 0:20:50.960 forty six years. It was extinguished in nineteen sixty six 0:20:50.960 --> 0:20:54.879 and a temporary lantern was erected, while an entirely new 0:20:54.920 --> 0:20:57.879 tower was built the following year. The new lighthouse was 0:20:57.960 --> 0:21:02.080 online boasting another upgrade you one point eight million candles light. 0:21:02.680 --> 0:21:06.560 In nineteen sixty nine, Skelling Michael's helipad was constructed on 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:10.720 the eastern coast of the island. That helipad is made 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:14.680 of reinforced concrete and three very thick columns supported off 0:21:14.680 --> 0:21:18.199 the cliff face. It is terrifying as everything else to 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:21.840 me to look at on the cliff side. The open 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:24.600 side of the helipad, it is a one twenty one 0:21:24.640 --> 0:21:27.520 ft or thirty seven meter dropped directly into the ocean. 0:21:28.000 --> 0:21:31.080 In nineteen seventy eight, Skelling michael became the focus of 0:21:31.119 --> 0:21:34.720 a long term conservation project. At that point, a retaining 0:21:34.760 --> 0:21:37.200 wall near the church that's part of the monastery St. 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:41.000 Michael's had experienced a structural failure and it was prioritized 0:21:41.040 --> 0:21:45.200 as the project's first order of business. UH And additionally, 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:47.520 steps that were leading up to the main entrance of 0:21:47.520 --> 0:21:52.119 the monastery also needed restoration. Natural water erosion had claimed 0:21:52.160 --> 0:21:55.160 some of the lower sections that reach into the waterline, 0:21:55.320 --> 0:21:58.680 and heavy use of these stairways during periods of lighthouse 0:21:58.680 --> 0:22:01.560 construction had all so really damaged some of the mason 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:04.840 rym Only one of the three stairways leading to the 0:22:04.840 --> 0:22:08.880 main monastery is currently accessible to visitors. In nineteen eighty 0:22:09.000 --> 0:22:11.480 excavation work began at the site of that work has 0:22:11.520 --> 0:22:15.480 continued for decades. The National Monument Service of Ireland was 0:22:15.520 --> 0:22:18.919 responsible for these efforts. That organization has been part of 0:22:19.000 --> 0:22:21.679 various government departments over the years, but it's work at 0:22:21.680 --> 0:22:26.600 Skelling Michael has continued seasonally throughout all those reorganizations. Yeah, 0:22:26.640 --> 0:22:29.360 there's a narrow window winter you can't really go there 0:22:29.400 --> 0:22:33.520 and do any sort of excavation, uh to examine the ruins, 0:22:33.560 --> 0:22:37.040 because it's just too cold. Uh. In ninety one a 0:22:37.119 --> 0:22:40.400