Monks may not have been the first to live on Skellig Michael

Skellig Michael: an archaeologist has discovered stairways in the rock that suggest inhabitants prior to AD 800.
Photograph: Don MacMonagle

LORNA SIGGINS

WHEN MONKS first travelled by sea out to Skellig Michael at least 1,200 years ago and built their windswept monastery, they may not have been the rock’s first inhabitants.

And when the Vikings, or church reform or bad weather forced them to quit, they may not have been the last dwellers before the arrival of the lightkeepers in the 1820s.

New evidence indicates Skellig Michael’s settlement history may be far more complex than previously thought, according to archaeologist Michael Gibbons.

Mr Gibbons has discovered steps and stairways on the rock’s northern and southern flanks, along with an earlier variant of eastern steps, which he had reported to the monument’s stewards, the Office of Public Works (OPW). The stairways lead off or link into the three main existing stairways. A ruined fort above the existing monastery could have been part of a network of high forts found on the Dingle peninsula and on the Blasket islands.

“It may be that some time before or around the eighth century, the monks moved into a pre-existing citadel,” Mr Gibbons said.

The independent archaeologist has appealed to the OPW to take a “sensitive” approach to new discoveries. Three years ago, Unesco criticised the State for the absence of a management plan, and found conservation works had “dramatically” transformed the appearance of monastic remains.

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