Self-interest put above the common good

The hardy monks used to winter in Ballinskelligs. They’d come in from the Rock as the weather turned nasty at the darkest time of year. And then, when the Skellig could no longer be inhabited at all, they moved lock, stock and barrel into Ballinskelligs and established an abbey.

The monks were no fools. They knew when they had stumbled across Paradise. These days, the South Kerry hamlet of Ballinskelligs attracts the multitudes in the summer rather than the monks in the winter. It’s an area blessed by nature. McCarthy’s ancient castle is at the tip of the elliptical-shaped beach.