UNESCO calls for Skellig risk assessment study after 2 deaths

THE United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has called for a risk assessment and a visitor carrying capacity study to be completed as soon as possible on Skellig Michael, off the Kerry coast.

Concerns about safety on the centuries-old monastic settlement have been raised, following the deaths of two American visitors in separate falls there, last year.

Skellig, visited by 11,000 tourists annually, is a UNESCO world heritage site and was on the agenda at a recent UNESCO committee meeting, in Brazil.

Another recommendation from the meeting was that the state should give higher priority to the boatmen who bring visitors to the cone-shaped rock, which has monastic remains dating to the seventh century.

UNESCO also noted that the first meeting with boatmen only took place in February this year.

It said formalising arrangements with the boatmen, who “consider themselves to be guardians of the property”, should also be a high priority.

At the same time, the committee acknowledged progress achieved by the Office of Public Works (OPW) through the development of the Skellig Michael management plan. The meeting, however, was not satisfied with the situation whereby four people wereemployed as a site management team and is now recommending the appointment of one of the four as site manager.

UNESCO also wants the public to be made more aware of conservation issues on Skellig and calls for an environmentally acceptable solution to the lack of toilet facilities on the rock that rises more than 200 metres out of the sea.

The state must report back on all the points listed by UNESCO by February 1, 2012.

Meanwhile, the families of the people that died accidentally on the rock — Joseph Gaughan and Christine Spooner — have initiated legal proceedings against the state.

Richard Spooner, the husband of Christine Spooner, was strongly critical of an independent safety review commissioned by the OPW after both deaths.

He said their main concern was the safety of future visitors and they were determined to improve safety measures on Skellig Michael, located 12km off the coast.

Mr Spooner, supported by the Gaughan family, described the report as “deeply flawed” and called for its withdrawal.

He also sent a 15-page document to the OPW, the Minister of State for Public Works Martin Mansergh and to UNESCO which designated the island a world heritage site in 1996 because of its monastic remains, believed to be among the oldest in Europe.