Thursday, March 14, 2019

A Star Wars Experience: Visiting Skellig Michael, Part 3: On the Island and Star Wars Sights



If you've followed my prior posts on visiting Skellig Michael, you've already done the hard part: You've planned a trip to Ireland and the Kerry coast, have booked your rooms and your boat in the village of Portmagee, and you've managed to keep down your breakfast on the eight mile crossing to Skellig Michael.  Congratulations!  Now it's time for the real fun as you experience this unique world heritage site.  Read on to see the culmination of our trip to Skellig Michael and all the wonderful sites atop the island... and next time, come back to see how Beth and I reenacted the denouement of the film as Jedi master and prospective apprentice.

Quick Index - Visiting Skellig Michael Parts I - IV

From the Landing to the South Stairs


Boats coming to land at the island, with the Little Skellig in the background

 As I covered in the previous post, the hike starts at the landing, a rocky outcrop on the northeastern end of the island almost directly below the monastic ruins several hundred feet above.  The first part of the walk runs southwest along the coast of the island toward the lighthouses and is pretty boring, although honestly, I kept having to settle butterflies in my stomach that weren't entirely lingering queasiness from the choppy boat crossing: We were on THE island!

At the foot of the south steps, a ranger gives a brief safety lecture and makes sure there's enough space between groups before sending the next one up the 600 stair ascent.

Beginning the ascent
The stairs go through a series of switchbacks as they climb up the side of the island.  Though they are roughly-cut stone and can be slick in the wet conditions prevalent in Ireland, anyone reasonably fit should be able to manage.  They're not as scary as some folks portray, either; Beth had no issues at all with the hike, though it could be she was completely focused on the fact that we had just stepped onto a real-life piece of Star Wars.

Perhaps where Luke stashed his X-wing?
Glance back briefly at the landing as you hike away from it: My thought is that this could be the location where Luke stashed his X-wing, which Rey sees submerged beneath the water in The Last Jedi.  Then again, a lot of the Kerry coast could have stood in for that shot, too.

Most advice I've read suggest that you not worry too much about sight-seeing or photographs on the hike up, and there's something to that, particularly if the steps are at all wet and slick (focus on your feet!).  However, depending on how much time you spend at the monastery and other sites at the top, you may feel a bit rushed coming back down and won't take nearly as long as you should on photos then, either.  So my suggestion is to stop if you see something you want a picture of, and obviously stop if you're winded and need a break from the climb.  Just do please step to the side as much as possible to let others pass.

Tourists far below on the South Stairs
Depending on the time of year you visit, you may encounter puffins making their nests (May through July, typically).  These adorable little birds are the inspiration for the porgs in The Last Jedi, and I can only imagine them getting into the filmmakers' gear throughout the shoot.  Chewbacca empathizes!  (And if you want to try to reenact his barbecuing of one of the beasts, please don't try it on the island--instead, you can find it on the tourist menu a bit across the Atlantic in Iceland, where I was sorely tempted to see if they taste like chicken.)  Unfortunately, we'd planned our trip for the late shoulder season in September, with not a porg, er, puffin in sight.

One last note on the initial stages of the climb: You may notice a helipad just shy of the South Stairs. The cast & crew used boats to reach the island each day, not helicopter (sorry, not even Mark Hamill rated a chopper).  I think this area was used to composite the scene where the Millenium Falcon lands at the end of The Force Awakens and is docked throughout The Last Jedi, but I could be wrong.

The Wailing Woman and Lightsaber Practice

One of the first seriously-recognizable sights you'll encounter is the Wailing Woman, which is a stone formation poised at the edge of the steep slope.  In the distance sits the Little Skellig (ever in view as you ascend the southeastern slope of the island).  Assuming you've watched The Last Jedi, you'll remember Rey practicing at lightsaber with this crag of rock as a mock foe... before she extends her swing a bit too far and slices the upper half off, sending it tumbling down onto the caretakers' cart on the path below.

The Wailing Woman and our young padawan, Beth
Though I'm speculating, I suspect that that scene as well as all the interactions with the island's caretakers which made the film's final cut are subtle jabs at the Irish authorities, who were justifiably concerned as to the impact a large Hollywood crew filming would have on this world heritage site.

I also got a bit of a chuckle before The Last Jedi came out, watching all of the analyses of the short footage of Rey practicing with her lightsaber and "a shape, maybe YODA, watching!"  Having been to the island, I knew that the "Yoda" shape was simply the top of the Wailing Woman, not a Force-ghost Jedi master watching the last remaining hope for the galaxy.

Keep climbing; there's much more to see.

Christ's Saddle and Luke Skywalker

One of only a few semi-level portions of the island sits between its two peaks and is where you will first emerge once you've completed the ascent up the South Stairs.  Christ's Saddle appears at the very end of The Force Awakens, but in real life, it's not actually the apex of the island--not even close!

Will you find a Jedi master awaiting you atop the island?
The stairs emerge just beyond the craggy little rock in the photo above.  The scenery is immediately recognizable, including the small little stone that some viewers initially speculated was a grave of someone close to Luke (it's just a rock).  From here, you can gaze out across the water toward the Little Skellig, and if you're not entirely afraid of heights, you can approach the edge and look down at the climbers below.  The Little Skellig, actually, is something which if you pay close attention to The Force Awakens you'll notice has been composited into several shots in duplicate: There simply aren't that many other islands visible in real life, certainly not to the degree seen in the film with the archipelago surrounding Luke's island.

Most people continue onward to the monastic ruins at this point, which you are free to do... but for us, we stopped here and let the crowds thin out so that we could enjoy the spot where Rey finds Luke at the end of her quest in relative peace.  A few others hiked up the opposite slope, but most everyone headed onto the final ascent to the monastery, giving us a good chunk of time to reenact that ultimate scene from the film's end.

Looking down from the hill above the southern end of Christ's Saddle
If you do walk up the dirt path rising to the south, be aware that when the ground is wet and slick, you should be extra careful (or perhaps not even attempt the walk--honestly, it doesn't give that much better of a view, anyway).  One of the rangers did tell us that he'd brought his girlfriend and a pack of beer up to the rocks of the southern peak, but the Irish authorities require advance approval to climb all the way to the hermitage, so don't go beyond where the path ends.

In the photo above, you can see a fence along the left side of the plateau; when Rey walks up upon Luke Skywalker at the end, she's coming from the fenceline, roughly where the dirt has been trodden down into a path, and Luke was of course standing near the little tombstone-shaped rock which is actually where the South Stairs ascend onto the plateau.  It's clear to me that the scene was filmed on a more overcast day than we experienced, and likely in the late afternoon--because when we visited, the sun made a direct reenactment of that scene impossible as the camera would be staring right into the sun behind Luke to the east.

Before I get much into our reenactment, though, let's follow the others onward to the monastic ruins; to paraphrase Rey, we'll be back.

Ascent to the Ruins

Fans with a quick eye will recognize this last long staircase ascending from Christ's Saddle, and they'll probably say, "Wait, don't these ascend from the monastery to the peak?"  That's the order of the shots in the film, with Rey pausing to consider the ruins briefly before making a final climb to discover Luke Skywalker, but in real life, you'll pass through the grounds of that last scene before reaching the last steep, narrow stairs.

Proceed, young padawan
These stairs are much more narrow and steep than those on the slopes of the island's South Stair ascent, and they are partly in shade, partly in the sun, and thus can be a bit slick with moisture and algae clinging to the rocks.  Be careful!  There's a handrail about 2/3 of the way up the stairs to help, but you're on your own beneath that.

Looking down at Christ's Saddle from the top of the stairs
At the top of the last flight of stairs, a quick glance back down at Christ's Saddle might make you dizzy; at any rate, it's absolutely clear how the film reversed the sequence of the geography, showing Rey emerge after the climb at a point where a fence (barely visible in this shot, along the right edge of the flat part of the land) actually stands.

Once you climb up and over the ridge from Christ's Saddle, there's a short, mostly level stretch of trail leading northeast toward the northern peak of the island.

A penitent man shall pass... oh, wait, mixed adventure movie metaphors there; sorry!
There's a dry-stacked stone door along the path; I really had to duck at 6'4" to make it through... though that's been the case in a lot of Ireland; I must not have much leprechaun blood in me, I guess.

This stretch of path offers some great views of the Little Skellig in the distance as well as the steep slopes of Skellig Michael.  One last small set of stairs at the end puts you on the grounds of the sixth century monastery, a place abandoned now for 800 years or more.

The Monastic Ruins

Almost all of the structures within the ruins are free-stacked stone, including the iconic beehive structures where the monks themselves lived.  The ruins of the old church itself are among the only uses of mortar on the island, and ironically, the church is in the worst shape of any of the buildings with only a couple of complete walls still standing.


Several of the beehive huts and the ruins of old church

If you've followed the crowd the whole way so far, I'm sad to say that you will indeed be part of a crowd. Though the Irish authorities limit the number of visitors to no more than 180 per day, the site is itself pretty small, and at least 100 of those people will likely be gathered on the grounds of the monastery at this point in the tour.

The monk's graveyard, and lots and lots of people...
There is a ranger on hand who will give a brief lecture on the history of the site and who will likely also talk a bit about filming Star Wars: The Force Awakens on the island.  Some parts of The Last Jedi also were filmed on site, though if you notice discrepancies in the layout of the beehive cells and the grounds of the Jedi temple, you're not imagining things: For many of the scenes in the latter film, Lucasfilm built a full-scale model monastery a bit further out along the Kerry coast.  This made filming much, much easier as it didn't require the logistics of traveling every day by boat to the island, the hike up to the site (and yes, they brought all of their gear up those 600-plus steps), and it also avoided the threat of damaging these historic, unique relics.  Remember the caretakers in the film and how upset they were that Rey blasted a hole through one of the beehive cells?  Unfortunately, Lucasfilm dismantled the set after filming; I bet the locals would have paid good money to keep it as a tourist attraction!

A row of beehive cells, with Beth in the distance for size perspective
While I'm sure that lecture was interesting, there were quite simply too many people in the way to get great photos... and we had a scene to reenact!  So Beth and I slipped away and walked back down to Christ's Saddle, where I removed my backpack and dug out the simplified costumes we'd made for the trip.  (More on that in the next post, I promise!)

After our photo shoot, we did make a brief visit back to the monastic ruins after the crowds had departed.  This makes photos and exploring much easier, but be forewarned that the ranger/guide at the ruins may limit how long you have on site if you do this.  He will be heading back down the island and catching a boat back to the mainland just like you, so he's not going to linger for long--and for obvious reasons the ranger is not likely to let you wander totally unsupervised, either.  In our case, Beth and I asked if we could make one quick pass through the ruins to see anything we had missed, and he was okay with that.  In my haste, though, I missed re-taking the shot of the monk's graveyard with the beehive cells stacked in the background that the crowd had so cluttered-up earlier, and my Photoshop skills at editing out the people have yielded mixed results to date.

One word of caution and courtesy: the walkway and stairs leading to the monastic ruins are fairly narrow.  If you're going to do like we did and invert the order of visiting the locations atop the island, you may want to wait until nearly everyone has gone one way or the other so that you're not swimming upstream.

The Return and Descent

Walking back down to the waiting boats is a good time to take it slow and grab any photos you missed on the hike up.  The perspective from above will be quite different, and you can let a fair bit of the crowds get well ahead of you to free up space in your pictures.  However, do note that at least one of the rangers will be following behind, ensuring everyone makes it down from the top safely.

Remember, don't spend the trip at the back of the boat! Your stomach will thank you.
Our boat, from Seanie and Mary Murphy's Sea Quest Adventures, took us on a loop around the entirety of Skellig Michael, giving us a chance to see the lighthouses on the southern tip and the steep green slopes and rocky shores of the Atlantic side of the island.  After that, we headed over to the Little Skellig to see the large colony of Gannets nesting on its uninhabited cliffs.  Approximately 35,000 of the birds make the smaller sibling to Skellig Michael their home.  If you manage to only be able to score an "eco tour" or "nature tour" booking, this is pretty much all you get to do: Boat out to and around the two skelligs, with a bit of a narrated tour from your guide.

Gannets nesting on the Little Skellig
All said and told, these maneuvers added a solid hour to the return trip to Portmagee, and though interesting in the sights seen, made for a miserable additional bit of seasickness.  I made the mistake of going to the back of the boat for a photo opportunity--and meanwhile, lost my place near the front where I could get the wind on my face and avoid the worst of the tossing movement on the day's choppy seas.

I managed not to be sick, but it was quite a bit closer a thing than the outbound!

Oh, one thing you might notice and wonder about: No, the gnarled old tree where Luke stows the Journals of the Whills / ancient Jedi texts does not exist, at least not on Skellig Michael, nor does the Force emblem inside a cave overlooking the ocean.  There are no trees on Skellig Michael, and there's no cave, either.  Those are creations of The Last Jedi, although the hermitage (again, accessible only with advance arrangements and proven significant climbing skills) atop the south peak of the island might come closest to the ledge from which Luke Skywalker levitates and projects his Force image during the fantastic final confrontation of The Last Jedi. 

Next time, finally, I'll cover how my wife Beth and I reenacted the final scene of The Force Awakens, costumes and lightsaber and all atop Christ's Saddle.  Until then, may the Force be with you.

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