A previously hidden staircase has been discovered on Skellig Michael off the Kerry coast, along with an unidentified cross, hewn from rock. The discoveries were made by archaeologist Michael Gibbons during recent field research as part of a project on pilgrimage mountains and islands.
The staircase is part of an uncharted route above the lighthouse road on an isolated part of the rock’s precipitous flanks. Mr Gibbons believes that it may have linked up to two of the three known routes up to the sixth century monastery.
The location of the route and stairway “suggests that they may have formed part of a larger, incredibly daring, pilgrimage circuit etched into the topography of the island,” he said.
“These new discoveries add a whole new dimension to the island’s archaeology and may have implications for our future understanding of how the monastery was laid out and how it developed over time.”
The rock-hewn cross which he also discovered was “very significant,” he said. While more than 60 crosses of various sizes have been found on Skellig Michael, which is a UNESCO world heritage site, this is one of only a handful identified on the entire island of Ireland which has been carved from bedrock.“
One is reminded of the biblical scene in which Christ names St Peter the rock and states that he is the rock upon which the church is built,” Mr Gibbons said. “In this case the cross on Skellig becomes the literal rock of the island, and the rock from which the church [as in the monastic community has been hewn.”
After probably being founded in the 7th century, for 600 years Skellig Michael island was a centre of monastic life for Irish Christian monks. The Celtic monastery, which is situated almost at the summit of the 230-metre-high rock, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.
It is one of Europe's better known but least accessible monasteries.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to us or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that we agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
SIC: CIN