Skellig Michael

Fri 28/8/26

Skellig Michael island

Early morning rise today. At 6.30am, I checked my email and also received an SMS that our landing tour to Skellig Michael island would proceed today. The tour costs EUR 270 or RM 1298 for 2 adults. After a self prepared breakfast in our self catering studio apartment, we checked out at 8.30am to drive about 20 mins to the Glen Pier or Skellig Falcon boat tour agency in Googlemaps.

the view to Glen pier

Glen pier

off to Skellig Michael

The boat trip to Skellig Michael island took about an hour with a stop near Little Skellig Michael island which had thousands of northen gannets flying and nesting, but unfortunately no puffins as it was already out of season. 

Little Skellig with the gannets

another view of Little Skellig

Little Skellig

goodbye Little Skellig

We landed on Greater Skellig Michael island at 10.30am and were given 2.5 hours on the island, i.e. we should be ready back at the pier at 1pm to make our way back to the mainland.

approaching Greater Skellig

there is a trail on Greater Skellig but not open to public

Greater Skellig

unique rock formation

landed at Greater Skellig

We were greeted by the Office of Public Works (OPW) officers for a short briefing before making our way up the 618 stone steps of stairs, carved directly out of the rock by early Christian monks centuries ago to the top of the island where the beehive huts, built using drystone or circular stone cells (called clocháns) without mortar, is located. 

let's go up

stone stairs

The views from and on the island, a massive vertical rock formation, Devonian Old Red Sandstone formed 360 to 380 million years ago, rising 218 meters above the Atlantic Ocean is beautiful. 

Skellig rock formation

the other side is not accesible

Greater Skellig rock formation

stairs by the edge of the cliff. Little Skellig in the background

After arriving at the top at the beehive huts, there was another briefing by the OPW officer on the history of the Christian monks who live in isolation there and some background on how the island was formed. We were also told if we wanted to eat our packed food, we should do it a bit further from the beehive hut to avoid the seagulls.

Skellig Michael island was also a filming location for the Star Wars : The Force Awakens movie. 

beehive huts on Skellig Michael

beehive hut

drystones or circular stone cells

Little Skellig visible from the top of Greater Skellig

About 30 minutes to 1pm, we made our way back down to the pier to wait for our boat for the return trip. There is no access to other parts of the island, and there were quite a few tour companies running today, so 2.5 hours is more than enough to cover the accessible areas for photography and self packed lunch. There are no shops on the island, only toilets near the pier.

more views of Skellig Michael

We then made our way back at 1pm. After reaching back Glen pier, we drove to the Kerry cliffs that we missed yesterday due to closing time. The entrance cost EUR 5 per person. There is an entrance fee due to it location is situated in a private owned land. I am curios why cliffs are privately owned. 

goodbye Greater Skellig Michael

Kerry Cliffs

The Kerry cliffs rise over 305 meters above the Atlantic Ocean and is higher than the famous Cliffs of Moher. It was formed about 400 million years ago in an ancient desert environment, featuring striking layers of Old Red Sandstone.

Kerry cliffs

Kerry cliffs

Kerry cliffs

After about an hour at Kerry cliffs, we drove to Killarney where we will based for the next 2 nights. On the way to Killarney, we stopped at 2 spots to take pictures, at Mountain Stage viewpoint of Dingle bay and River Caragh viewpoint.

view of Dingle bay

view of Dingle bay

River Caragh viewpoint

We arrived at our spacious accommodation Killarney Haven apartment (EUR 300 or RM 1453 for 2 nights) at 5.30pm, and were welcomed by an elderly man, Donal who insisted to bring up our luggage over the flight of stairs to the second floor, but of course we only allowed him to bring the lighter groceries bag. 

Killarney Haven apartment

We did our laundry tonight at the apartment's laundry room with washer and dryer (no additional charge). On hindsight, we should not have brought so many clothes as I already knew the apartment had laundry facilities. We also cooked our own dinner at the self catering apartment.

Portmagee

Thu 27/8/26

Wicklow to Portmagee

Today we would be taking a long drive from our guesthouse in Roundwood, County Wicklow to Portmagee in County Kerry, covering a distance of about 400km and would be taking about 5 hours. We had to make this long journey today as I have booked a landing tour to Skellig Michael island, a Unesco Heritage Site for tomorrow morning. Other dates were already fully booked.

We opted to take the country road instead of the highway (motorway) as we wanted to see the scenic views of the countryside. From Roundwood, we took the Wicklow Gap way and stopped for a photo near Lough Nahanagan while it was raining. It was too beautiful to skip, although in the rain.

a Wicklow Gap way view point

Wicklow Gap way view point

We planned to stop by Rock of Dunamase on the way, but the road to the location was closed for public today due to the Electric Picnic festival. We tried to use another way, but was also diverted by traffic police. It was raining heavily anyway, so perhaps it was the best decision for us to skip it today. We ended up stopping for coffee takeaway at a petrol station somewhere in before continuing the journey to Portmagee. 

view of Dingle bay on the way to Portmagee

We reached our guesthouse Skellig Port Accommodation (EUR 80 or RM 388 per night) at 5pm. After checking in and refreshing ourselves, we made our way to the nearby Kerry cliffs but was told they were closing soon and we had only 30 minutes for viewing. So we decided to go tomorrow instead.

We then drove to the nearest beach Reencaheragh (not really a beach) to take some pictures, then drove to the parking lot near the Portmagee pier to cross the bridge by foot. 

view of Portmagee channel from Reencaheragh beach

Portmagee town view from the bridge

Portmagee (left) and Valentia island (right)

It was then time to head back, prepare dinner and rest for the day as we would have to follow up on the early morning update tomorrow at 6.30am whether the landing tour to Skellig Michael island would proceed or not, depending on the weather.

Wicklow

Tue 25/8/26 

It was 2pm when we left the airport and made our way to our destination today, Wicklow with a stop at Lidl to buy groceries. A woman at the counter randomly asked us how to cook the salmon that we bought. 

We reached our accommodation The Lodge Guesthouse (EUR 90 or RM 436 per night) located at the border between county Dublin and county Wicklow at 4pm and it was raining. Since we were not really hungry, we had dinner of seared salmon with spinach which we cooked and then retired early as we were very sleepy. 

The Lodge Guesthouse

Wed 26/8/26

Wicklow National Park

It was still raining when we woke up in the morning. Partner In Crime prepared breakfast and packed some sandwich for lunch while we go for hiking. We saw wild deer at our house compound. 

We decided to proceed with our hike to Djouce Mountain nearby although it has not stopped raining. I suddenly remembered that we had forgotten to take some of our groceries inside the fridge, so we drove back to the house. Luckily it was just about 20 minutes away. 

We first stopped at the Lough Tay viewing point to take some pictures of the Lough Tay lake but it was very cloudy. Then we parked at J B Malone Car Park (free of charge) to do the Djouce Mountain hike. We read that there were car break in incidents so we made sure that our belongings were not visible. 

Lough Tay lake

It was still raining when we started the hike at 10am, and visibility was very poor. We couldn't see beyond 100m, but we continued on until reaching White Hill after about 30 minutes when we decided to turn back as the weather was still not improving. Along the way we saw sheep grazing. We only covered a distance of 4.61km in 1h 5m with elevation gain of 196m.

low visibility during the Djouce mountain hike

low visibility during the Djouce mountain hike

view from White Hill 

We decided to drive to Wicklow National Park via the Sally Gap and parked at Glendalough Upper Lake car park (EUR 5 for whole day), located about 30 minutes away. Fortunately it has now stopped raining. We first took some pictures at the Glendalough Upper Lake, and then decided to do the Spinc Trail loop since it was still early at 12 noon and we could only check in at our next guesthouse after 4pm.

Glendalough Upper Lake

Glendalough Upper Lake

We did the Spinc Trail clockwise, reaching Poulanass waterfall shortly and continued climbing until we reached several view points of the Glendalough Upper Lake. It was really beautiful so we stopped a lot for pictures. We saw more wild deer here, although there was one who was not afraid of humans and came very near to us looking for food. 

Poulanass waterfall 

wooded area trail

first view of Glendalough Upper Lake

view of pine tree forest

second view point

view point of lake and forest

beautiful views 

boardwalk Glenealo valley

Glenealo valley

stone walk at the valley

a friendly deer spotted down at the valley 

deer up close

stream down at the valley

Miner's village ruins

While we stopped to have lunch, we rescued a tired bee. We couldn't find any flowers with enough nectar nearby so we brought him until the car park to feed him with water diluted with sugar (that we had in the car) to give him energy. Once he was energized, he flew up high like a drone. We hope he made it back to his colony.

not enough nectar

giving glucose water

We completed the Spinc Trail loop in 3h 45 mins including stops with a distance of 11.13 km and elevation gain of 436m.

We then drove shortly to our next guesthouse The Loft near Roundwood (EUR 126 or RM 610 per night) about 17 min away and self checked in. No more further activity for today, so we prepared dinner at the self catering accommodation and then called it a day.

the Loft