Saturday, January 7, 2017

Skellig Stay

The remote hermitage where Rey finally finds Luke Skywalker at the end of The Force Awakens may have seemed like another fantastic computer-generated imagery creation (landscapes are easy, people are hard) but was a real place. Including the 600 or so steps Rey climbed to find him.

It's an abandoned 7th century monastery on the island of Skellig Michael, about eight miles off the coast of Ireland. At times threatened by Viking invaders, the monastery was inhabited until the monks moved back to Ireland sometime in the 12th century.

And if the eight miles and 600 steps weren't enough to help you find some solitude, there is yet another small oratory on a higher peak, designed for a single monk at a time. You might or might not be as mired in traditional Christian theism as is your humble blogger, but it is tough to imagine not finding at least some sense of peace after spending some time on this little spot of land.

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