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Branching off the Ring of Kerry, this little-travelled 18km route links Portmagee, Valentia Island and Waterville via a Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking) area centred on Ballinskelligs (Baile an Sceilg).
The area is wild and beautiful, with the ragged outline of Skellig Michael never far from view. This dramatic island housed a remote monastery between the 6th and 12th centuries and is now an important site for puffins, gannets and guillemots. Its starring role as a location in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Last Jedi means it hogs the limelight, but elsewhere on the Skellig Ring you'll find historic resorts, colourful houses, walking trails and a history that takes in ancient vertebrates and the transatlantic telegraph.
These are our favorite local haunts, touristy spots, and hidden gems throughout Skellig Ring.
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The jagged, 217m-high rock of Skellig Michael (Michael's Rock; like St Michael's Mount in Cornwall and Mont St Michel in Normandy) is the larger of the two Skellig Islands and a Unesco World Heritage site. Early Christian monks established a community and survived here from the 6th until the 12th or 13th century. The monastic buildings perch on a saddle in the rock, some 150m above sea level, reached by 618 steep steps cut into the rock face.
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Immediately across the bridge from Portmagee, this distinctive building with a turf-covered roof contains exhibitions on the life of the Skellig Michael monks, the history of the island's lighthouses and its wildlife. From April to September, it also runs two-hour cruises around the islands (no landing), and is a good place to get advice on visiting the Skelligs. In March, April, October and November the centre opens six days a week, but the exact days change each year – check ahead.
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This string of small depressions in an exposed sandstone bedding surface next to the sea may not be as spectacular as dinosaur footprints, but these fossil tracks – left behind by a metre-long amphibious creature around 360 million years ago – are among the world's oldest physical evidence of a vertebrate creature moving on land. Even if geology isn't your thing, the setting is beautiful, with views to the Blasket Islands and the Dingle Peninsula. It's 4.3km northwest of Knightstown.
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At the northern end of Ballinskelligs on the site of a village abandoned during the Famine, this contemporary art gallery with a circular, thatched roof displays work by local artists and talent from around Ireland and the world. It's the shop window of the Cill Rialaig Project, which provides a retreat for creative people who pay for their stay with art. Ask about special events including Saturday supper clubs, children's art workshops and various exhibitions. There's a cafe inside.
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Built as a linen mill in the 1770s, this estate was transformed from 1808 when its owner established its 16-hectare gardens with exotic plants from around the world including bamboo and the tallest tree ferns in Europe. Now partly restored, part still atmospherically overgrown, trails meander along its beach, river and through the forest. Accommodation is available in the manor house.
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Small Skellig is long, low and craggy: from a distance it looks as if it's shrouded in a swirling snowstorm. Close up you realise you're looking at a colony of over 23,000 pairs of breeding gannets, the second-largest breeding colony in the world. Most boats circle the island so you can see the gannets and you may see basking seals as well. Small Skellig is a bird sanctuary; no landing is permitted.
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Inside the old school on the road towards Geokaun Mountain, this intriguing local museum has a treasure trove of artefacts that tell the tale of the island's history more eloquently than any textbook – from school chemistry sets and slate-quarrying tools to fossils and old photographs, with pride of place going to the Morse key used to test the world's first transatlantic telegraph cable.
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Its hyperbolic name – and recreated dry-stone clochán with fake birds perched on top – aside, the view is indeed spectacular from this privately owned walk along 305m-high cliffs, which look out over Skellig Michael and surrounding islands. The 800m-long path is fenced and has coin-operated binoculars. Admission includes parking; a cafe opens from Easter to September.
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At these gleaming open-plan premises, you can get an overview of chocolate production and taste the wares too. Samples are free, and chocolates are sold in boxes, bags, and in dishes – along with heavenly hot chocolate – at the rather industrial on-site cafe (open Easter to September).