'Skelligs settlement may predate monastery'

Tabnabs

Very interesting to see an alternative to the established beliefs regarding the Skelligs, but also disturbing to read they are not being taken care of in an appropriate manner.

SKELLIG MICHAEL’S settlement history may be “far more complex” than previously thought, according to a Connemara archaeologist who has discovered several additional stairways on the Kerry rock.

The previously unidentified sets of steps were discovered recently by archaeologist Michael Gibbons on the northern and southern flanks of Skellig Michael, a Unesco world heritage site.

Gibbons believes the networks of stairways indicate several phases to Skellig Michael’s occupation, believed to date from the sixth to eighth centuries when monks settled there – with the last permanent residents being lightkeepers from the 1820s until the lighthouse automation there in April 1987.

Remains of a fort above the existing monastery indicate the monks could have moved into a “pre-existing citadel”, Gibbons says. This structure may have been one of a number of “high forts” that are known to have existed on the Dingle peninsula and on the Blasket islands.

The set of more than two dozen steps found by Gibbons on the southeast approach, or “Monk’s landing”, is to the east of a smaller set identified some years ago by Valentia Island historian Des Lavelle.

The newly discovered northern stairway is below “Christ’s saddle”, the small valley 130m above sea level between the rock’s two distinctive peaks.

Both flights can be seen from sea, but are beyond the general visitor’s route and are only accessible with mountaineering equipment. He has also found an earlier variant of the eastern steps.

Skellig Michael already has three recognised stairways, linking three landing places to “Christ’s saddle”.

From there, one flight leads up to the monastery, comprising walled enclosures with dry-stone cells and oratories looking out from a ledge on to Little Skellig and the Kerry coastline.

There is also a set of steps up the precipitous 218m south peak to a hermitage, which has been controversially restored by the Office of Public Works and Department of the Environment.

Visitors to the rock are not permitted up this stairway, which has been fenced off by the OPW.

Last year Gibbons discovered a previously hidden staircase above the lighthouse, along with a rock-hewn cross and several additional clocháns or huts.

While dozens of crosses of various sizes have been found on Skellig Michael, only a handful have been carved directly from a rock foundation.

The cross, close to a clochán, may have marked a prayer station on the route to the monastery – or may predate the monastery, says Gibbons.

The independent archaeologist, who has been critical of the OPW’s style of conservation or restoration, has appealed to the State body to take a sensitive approach to new discoveries.

Three years ago Unesco criticised the State for the absence of a management plan, and found that conservation work on the south peak had “dramatically” transformed the appearance of monastic remains.

The report found that such work was “justifiable” and the “outstanding universal values” of the monument remained intact once such conservation work was documented in an academic publication.

The OPW was unable to confirm yesterday if such documentation has been published.

Gibbons also believes the network of staircases deserves considerably more research. “Staircases are the key to Skellig Michael’s historical chronology, since the sixth century or further back, and up until the period when the Commissioners of Irish Lights would also have created access routes,” he explains.

“The different staircases may indicate a far more complex pattern of settlement than previously documented, or they may also indicate a far more daring pilgrimage circuit was created on the island, at a time when it was a pilgrimage site.”

Viking raids, a shifting climate and more numerous storms, and a change in the management of the Irish church from a monastic to a diocesan structure were factors that contributed to the eventual abandonment of Skellig Michael’s monastery, some 11.6km west of Kerry’s Bolus Head.

source

InTheTrees

I saw a documentary about some of the construction work thats been done that certainly doesnt qualify as restoration which is a shame.

Fuinseog

many pagan sites were taken over by the christians.

MarchDub

Fuinseog wrote: »

many pagan sites were taken over by the christians.

Yes - Croagh Patrick and Lough Derg being two of the more famous which originated as pagan sites. This is nothing new or extraordinary.

Even the pagan festivals frequently became Christian ones. 'St Brigid' for example is derived from the goddess of the same name. And everyone knows where All Souls and All Saints [Halloween] originated from - Oice Samhain and Samain.

Tabnabs

MarchDub wrote: »

Yes - Croagh Patrick and Lough Derg being two of the more famous which originated as pagan sites. This is nothing new or extraordinary.

I'd be interested in learning more about this, do you know of any reliable source material?

fontanalis

MarchDub wrote: »

Yes - Croagh Patrick and Lough Derg being two of the more famous which originated as pagan sites. This is nothing new or extraordinary.

Even the pagan festivals frequently became Christian ones. 'St Brigid' for example is derived from the goddess of the same name. And everyone knows where All Souls and All Saints [Halloween] originated from - Oice Samhain and Samain.

Isn't Brigid related to a mainland European myth also? Do you know of any links to a Britsh tribe called the Brigante?

brianthebard

Dyflin wrote: »

I'd be interested in learning more about this, do you know of any reliable source material?

Are you questioning the assertion or just looking for stuff to read? Because I can't think of anything off the top of my head that you could read but its fairly well known that pagan sites of worship and tradition were christianised, for instance the holy wells, or even the pre-christian myths which were revised in later centuries. The Bartlett book that someone else was talking about in another thread might cover this in some detail.

CDfm

fontanalis wrote: »

Isn't Brigid related to a mainland European myth also? Do you know of any links to a Britsh tribe called the Brigante?

Didnt Brigids fire in Kildare predate Christianity in Ireland too -I wonder what type of excavations surround Kildare Cathedral and other historic Christian sites

EDIT - & holy wells too. Wow.I would love to hear more about their origans and if they are peculiar to Ireland.

Tabnabs

brianthebard wrote: »

Are you questioning the assertion or just looking for stuff to read? Because I can't think of anything off the top of my head that you could read but its fairly well known that pagan sites of worship and tradition were christianised, for instance the holy wells, or even the pre-christian myths which were revised in later centuries. The Bartlett book that someone else was talking about in another thread might cover this in some detail.

I'm looking for any source material (eg. Tacitus - Agricola) really. To say something is fairly well known usually points to either source material or archaeological evidence. I would be interested to know what is actually known about worship at holy wells, which pre-christian myths were revised and how do we know they were revised? Who wrote them down first? (eg. Snorri Sturluson for ON Mythology).

With anything pre-christian, I am always interested in learning more, but I have found a critical and open mind necessary to establish what is useful and what is superfluous.

MarchDub

Dyflin wrote: »

I'd be interested in learning more about this, do you know of any reliable source material?

One of the most respected sources for the blending in of ancient festivals is Máire MacNeill's Festival of Lughnasa. It was published back in the 1960s by Oxford U Press and re-published recently. Her work still stands up. Also check out the work of Professor Pádraig Ó Riain [retired UCC] especially his Traces of Lug in Early Irish Hagiographical Tradition and Studies in Irish Hagiography: Saints and Scholars, written with Marie Herbert.

One of the most noticeable aspects of early Irish Christianity is that it did not challenge the pagan rites or gods/godesses but accepted them and then blended them into Christian teaching. This is often cited as the reason why there were no martyrs in early Irish Christianity - it was a non violent transition.

The exception to this was as regards places being taken over was Tara - Tara was abandoned.

Tabnabs

MarchDub wrote: »

One of the most respected sources for the blending in of ancient festivals is Máire MacNeill's Festival of Lughnasa. It was published back in the 1960s by Oxford U Press and re-published recently. Her work still stands up. Also check out the work of Professor Pádraig Ó Riain [retired UCC] especially his Traces of Lug in Early Irish Hagiographical Tradition and Studies in Irish Hagiography: Saints and Scholars, written with Marie Herbert.

Thanks very much MarchDub, Festival of Lughnasa is in the local library and I'll keep an eye out for the other titles.

brianthebard

MarchDub wrote: »

The exception to this was as regards places being taken over was Tara - Tara was abandoned.

Any theories as to why this was?

fontanalis

MarchDub wrote: »

One of the most respected sources for the blending in of ancient festivals is Máire MacNeill's Festival of Lughnasa. It was published back in the 1960s by Oxford U Press and re-published recently. Her work still stands up. Also check out the work of Professor Pádraig Ó Riain [retired UCC] especially his Traces of Lug in Early Irish Hagiographical Tradition and Studies in Irish Hagiography: Saints and Scholars, written with Marie Herbert.

One of the most noticeable aspects of early Irish Christianity is that it did not challenge the pagan rites or gods/godesses but accepted them and then blended them into Christian teaching. This is often cited as the reason why there were no martyrs in early Irish Christianity - it was a non violent transition.

The exception to this was as regards places being taken over was Tara - Tara was abandoned.

Is it true that the circular shape on the celtic cross represents the sun (used as an easy way to make the transition from paganism to christianity easier)?
Back to Skellig, I can see the reasoning behind monks going there, isolation and all that.
But why would pagans set up shop there? Would it have to do with any sea faring culture?
Also wasn't the south coast home to important mines during the pre christian era?

MarchDub

brianthebard wrote: »

Any theories as to why this was?

Yes there are many theories – it was probably a matter of politics and power. There is a simple theory that Tara was such a strong pagan site – it was the centre of the pagan religious festivals - that the Irish converted Christians were reluctant to disturb it and choose to ignore it or invent myths about Patrick challenging druids there and other such ‘stories’. Early Irish Christianity was non violent in proselytising and rarely directly challenged pagan rituals or iconic symbols. It was also actually non Roman in form and developed the monastic model which was non challenging to the native Irish lifestyle of living in communities. At that time the rest of European Christianity was based on a Roman diocesan model.

But there is other information also with some evidence of what was going on politically. We know that the O’Neills of Ulster had become the most powerful family in Ireland and had taken over the area of Armagh – and then Tara – and were promoting ‘their’ Armagh as the most sacred place in Ireland and were busy promoting it as the centre of Irish Christianity. The O’Neill scribes – most especially Muirchu and Tierchan writing in the late seventh century – elevated Patrick and the monastery at Armagh and at the same time demonized Tara in their writings.

What we do know is that something was successful in making the monastery at Armagh the centre of Irish Christianity and Tara sunk into religious oblivion.

InTheTrees

Was Glendalough also a pre-christian religious site?