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Ireland - Page 3 Skellig Michael Continued
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 Beehive Hut used by Monks on Skellig Michael |
The Monastery
I am a slow climber and was soon the last in line on the stairs. Eventually passengers on the later boats arrived and passed me too. By the time I reached the monastery, the ranger was giving a long talk on the history of the island. While she was very good, I had heard all of this the day before at the Skellig Experience so I passed up the talk and explored the beehive huts. Beehive huts are not unusual and I saw more on the Dingle Peninsula. What mean existence they must have offered on the cold, dank island.
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The monks collected rain water in cisterns, They ate birds
and eggs and fished the seas. They traded eggs and skins. They also kept goats
which happily have been removed from the island. While I was at the monastery I observed several Fulmars flying past. Gannets do not nest on Skellig Michael, but on adjacent islands. |
Killibegs - The Irish Fishing Fleet
On one of my last days in the Irish Republic, I drove out the peninsula to Killibegs the home of the Irish North Atlantic Fishing Fleet. For some reason the fleet was in port and the lack of activity around the boats indicated they were not going out soon. Expensive boats like these do not stay in port unless they are forced. At any rate it was a good chance to see and photograph the state of art of fishing boats.
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The technology of fishing has outstripped the ability of the
fish to reproduce and fish stocks have declined drastically. These three boats
are not a family fishing fleet. This is state of the art corporation fishing.
Just beyond these boats were some smaller boats which looked more like the fishing boats I am familiar with from Gloucester. Interestingly one of the stories on the evening news was about small fishermen blaming Gray Seals for the poor fishing. Wake up guys it is not the seals. |
| This rear shot of one of the big ships shows the
superstructure that supports the huge nets up to 26 miles long. Ireland is certainly not the only high-tech fishing country. Iceland, Norway, Japan, and United States are among the large fishing countries. I publish these photographs just because I was there and caught the fleet in port. |
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