Twelve kilometers off the coast of Ireland, a wedge of stone rises from the Atlantic Ocean—Skellig Michael. Almost two hundred meters above the water, round stone cells, built without a drop of mortar, still stand. For six hundred years, monks lived here: they climbed hundreds of steps carved into the sheer cliff face, survived winter storms that cut the island off from the world for weeks, and endured Viking raids.

Who were these people? How did this dry stonework survive for over a thousand years? Why is the island dedicated to the Archangel Michael, and what does the chain of "holy rocks" from Ireland to Italy have to do with it? And what were the monks really guarding at the edge of the world?

⏱ Timestamps
0:00 Island at the End of the World
4:47 Where did the Rock in the Middle of the Ocean Come From?
8:37 Blind Bay and Landing on the Island
12:20 Monastery on the Terrace: Six Beehive Cells
17:32 The Secret of Dry Masonry
21:18 Who Were These People and Why Did They Come Here?
25:36 Island Monasteries of the Atlantic
31:02 Vikings
38:08 How a Community Lived for Six Centuries
41:04 One Year on Skellige
45:08 Voices of Monks: Poems and Manuscript Margins
50:21 Why Michael's Island
57:10 Landfall: Ballinskelligs
1:02:13 The Age of Lighthouses
1:06:26 An Island Given to Birds
1:09:15 One Night a Thousand Years Ago
1:14:56 What They guarded

💬 Could you live on such a rock for at least one winter? Tell us in the comments.

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