The islands of Ireland: The hidden church off the coast of Kerry

It is a place of worship, but not in the traditional sense. The towering cliffs of Inishnabro are known as the cathedral rocks as they resemble a magnificent church. Some, but not many, have come to kneel at their altar, writes Dan MacCarthy.

No ordinary cathedral, this is the Chartres Cathedral of geology. Huge needles of sandstone thrust into the sky like church spires. Massive vaults of rockface tower above the sea. Buttresses of inclined cliffs, compressed for millions of years, reinforce the whole. It is a baroque masterpiece. At one point, a rock slippage appears to show a doorway into the interior. A trick of light? Of reason?

The cathedral is fragmentary, and transitory of course, though geologic time is measured in eons not mere generations. After the teutonic pummelling Ireland received last week the character of Inishnabro and all the islands is a bit different in some cases, significantly different in others. Here, a cliff face fallen into the sea, there an old house blasted into the ocean.