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.