skelligmichael

As a tour guide on the Skelligs in the early '90s I used to love climbing over the wall into the lighthouse and exploring. It was a fabulous place to live I am sure, although remote. Whenever Richard Foran, one of the ex-keepers, would come out to do maintenance a visit to the light was a must, not only to climb up the tower but to hear Richards stories of times gone by over a mug of tea, as must have happened many a time in that house. They were the best two summers of my life working on the rock, 3 weeks on and 1 off with no electricity, no running water, a VHF for communication. It would appear, though, that the Star Wars attraction has overcome the real meaning of visiting the rock, which is to experience what it must have been like for the monks many years ago and the keepers in more modern times to live there.

I watched a fantastic documentary series called Great Lighthouses of Ireland recently. Here is a promotional video which is really worth a look. Great Lighthouses of Ireland | RTÉ One

Mike Grimes How lucky were you, Mike?! (even with the no lecky/no water)

I second the recommendation of the recent RTE series!

Fantastic stuff! This history - www.irishlights.ie/tourism/our-lighthouses/skelligs-rock.... - says "... The dwellings were semi-detached (one house for the Principal Keeper and one for the Assistant) the lower was two-storey, the upper single. Each had attic rooms. The pitched roof of the lower house was flattened circa 1910. Each house had its own cast iron porch and all four are still in situ. ..." The photo on page 38 (see sliding thingy) shows the house with a pitched roof and dated "June 1908" - catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000284024#page/38/mode/1up So after June 1908 at least ?

Seated on the right, Sir David Harrel (1841–1939), Chief Commissioner Dublin Metropolitam Police - www.dib.ie/biography/harrel-sir-david-alfred-a3814

Standing left arms folded, Lord Ian Basil Gawaine Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood (4 November 1870 – 3 July 1917), known as Lord Basil Temple Blackwood, was a British lawyer, civil servant and book illustrator.
See - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basil_Temple_Blackwood


Illustration by Basil Temple Blackwood for 'Cautionary Tales for Children' (1907) by Hillare Belloc. This is "Jim, who ran away from his Nurse, and was eaten by a Lion".

Better photo of him at 'Image 6'.

Standing right, Vaughan Robinson Nash CB CVO (1861 – 16 December 1932) was a British journalist, economist and the husband of Rosalind Nash.
From - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaughan_Nash

Better photo 'Image 7'.

Skellig Michael, oratory and the bee-hive huts

YIKES! There's a googleball - maps.app.goo.gl/bTwu7ErGHbdtnZjm6

Ed. - Or two! - maps.app.goo.gl/RzAYCA9MrCkfcHvF7

Is he holding a camera? Someone who knows about cameras might be able to help with the date ...

4/6/2012 by Michal Dymet

Google map link OSI 6" map link

beachcomber australia The original caption on this shot was "Skellig Michael, cell, double lintel. Priest/camera." So the answer to your question is affirmative! Hopefully somebody who knows about cameras might be able to help???

Possibly dates from around 1928 as the The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland mentions "Mr. Thomas H. Mason, Fellow, exhibited a series of Lantern Slides of " The Antiquarian Remains on the Islands of Inish- murray and Skellig Michael," with explanatory notes.", at least according to the Google Books result page.