Ireland XI - Skellig Michael

During my time in Ireland, I mostly stuck to exploring on my own. But I did purchase one tour in advance -- I was lucky enough to secure a spot on the very limited Skellig Michael landing tours. This incredible World Heritage site is eight miles off the Irish coast in the North Atlantic. It's recently famous for being used in Star Wars filming, but I was more interested in the stunning natural beauty and incredible sixth century monestary and stone staircases built entirely from hand stacked stone. For days before the tour I was sure it would be canceled as the forecast looked awful - predicting half an inch of rain this day. It did rain and was a bit stormy all night, but the storm passed by about 8am, and ended up being one of the most beautiful days of the trip. I'm so grateful because the island was totally unreal...really no words, and even photos fail to capture the experience of being there! After getting back to Portmagee around 2:30pm, I spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the rest of the Ring of Kerry.