Skellig Michael

The jagged, 217m-high rock of Skellig Michael (Archangel Michael’s Rock; like St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall and Mont St Michel in Normandy) is the larger of the two Skellig Islands and a Unesco World Heritage site. Early Christian monks established a community and survived here from the 6th until the 12th or 13th century. The monastic buildings perch on a saddle in the rock, some 150m above sea level, reached by 618 steep steps cut into the rock face. Skellig Michael famously featured as Luke Skywalker’s Jedi temple in  Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Last Jedi, attracting a whole new audience to the island’s dramatic beauty.