Skellig Michael: It's living on an island - with a difference

Michelle Walshe recalls the three months she spent living in the early monastic site on Skellig Michael

Skellig Michael rears out of the sea like a prehistoric monster, a hulking, ferocious dinosaur about to fling back its head. Little Skellig squats beside it, you hear it before you see it, this squawking, cackling colony of birds. It is completely white, guano covered, unlike it’s greener, towering, imposing twin. Skellig Michael points upward, the island shaped like hands raised in prayer.