Even drenched from the ocean’s spray, nothing could drown out my enthusiasm as we boated out into the wild sea. Swelling in my ears was “Rey’s Theme,” along with “Jedi Steps,” though no one was playing the tunes aloud. Alongside me, besides a handful of strangers and the driver, were two of my best friends, found at a Star Wars convention three years prior. On the horizon, an ancient, mysterious island, Skellig Michael, which I’ve only seen in my dreams (and a film or two), the culmination of our own long and nearly 100% cancelled journey to Ahch-To. Here’s the tale of the Mynocks’ Adventure to Ireland: Ahch-To or Bust.
When I met Elliot and Felicia at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim 2015, never in a million lightyears did I imagine I’d be travelling across Ireland with them to visit Skellig Michael just over three years later. SWCA was my first convention, and Mynock Manor had barely been live for a year, and all my nervousness about the event washed away as I met fan after fan as we waited in lines, jazzed from the opening day footage of The Force Awakens; I really was home, just like Han and Chewie felt boarding the Falcon. Waiting for Revenge of the Sith in 3D at SWCA, I found myself roped into a group which included the London-based couple and we managed to keep in contact over the following year, until I made the journey to Celebration Europe 2016 and spent even more time with them, cementing our friendship from casual online interactions to an everyday chat across the globe. We got to talking about seeing Skellig Michael one day, almost like a death-stick dream idea, and we not only got serious about it in the fall of 2017, but we ended up booking a landing tour, through Skelligs Rock, on the mystical island for May 19, 2018, the weekend before Solo: A Star Wars Story‘s release. 2017 was the first year we hadn’t seen one another, but 2018 quickly became home to two such occasions when I made a quick visit to London with the Marshes in January to see my favorite band, Lacuna Coil, perform their 20th Anniversary show and we as a group dove into Secrets of the Empire, a spectacular VR experience not to be missed. Anticipation built afterwards, as May kept feeling like it got further away, knowing our chance to board a rich heritage site on the planet Earth as well as be transported to an island where Rey trained to be a Jedi and Luke Skywalker spent his final days, was nearing. And then it all came crashing down, as less than a week out from our trip, we got the news our landing tour had been cancelled.
Getting to Ireland and out to Portmagee, the sleepy, beautiful, and quaint little city where the boat tours of Skellig launch from, is just one part of the battle. The real one, the bigger part of the battle, is actually making it out of Portmagee and to the island, be it through a landing tour or an Eco-tour, where you boat around the Skelligs without actually stepping foot on the island. Considering Skellig Michael is 8 miles off the coast of Ireland, visitors are at the whims of the weather as it can effect both the boating conditions and safety of exploring the island itself, which both Ireland’s Office of Public Works (OPW) and the Skellig Michael guides watch and ultimately decide the safety of travel. The guides live on the island for two weeks on, one week off shifts and they have final say on the go/no-go status of the tours, so even if things seem clear and the OPW has cleared the island for visitors, they could still call landings off. There’s a chance, if you ever go visit, you’ll never have to worry about any of this, while any or all of these factors could upend the entire journey, but that’s the risk you take with visiting an already famous island made even more so after Star Wars filmed there. For our trip in May we booked our tour back in August of 2017, mainly because the days were already filling up fast, but also because the timing worked out best for both parties. It would be both the OPW’s restoration efforts and the weather which waylaid our landing unfortunately, but through the will of the Force, we managed to at least enjoy an Eco tour, an option totally worth it rather than coming all the way to Ireland only to never see the island up close.
But that almost didn’t happen! After we received the deflating news our landing tour was cancelled prior to even leaving for Ireland, the Marshes’ managed to book us an Eco tour for the same day, the 19. But on Thursday morning (the 17), after a day spent enjoying the Guinness factory in Dublin, we found out the Eco tour had been canceled, but we would be able to get on an Eco tour for Friday at 8:45 am, which would completely undo our original plans for Friday. Later that day, we found out the morning Eco tour was also canceled, but there was an opening for a 2:30 pm tour instead. After a roller coaster of emotions, from fears we’d never get closer to the island than the coastline, to concerns how an early tour would completely mess up our schedule and already booked hotels, it was finally settled: we were doing an Eco tour and it’d fit perfectly into our plans. We never quite gave up hope on a landing tour, as I relentlessly threw email after email at all the boat tours, hoping to hear about a cancellation for May 20/21, days when the OPW had “cleared” landings and we’d still be in Ireland, but there was no luck with that; Don’t just email though, go out to the boats at 8am every morning and ask the captains if someone hasn’t shown up, as people don’t always cancel beforehand and simply don’t arrive instead. Unfortunately for us, and everyone else who booked a landing and/or Eco tour that weekend, the OPW, due to weather and continued restoration efforts, pushed the official date to reopen the island all the way out until the 23. So like I said, it was through the will of the Force we were able to make that 2:30 Eco tour, otherwise the main goal of our entire Ireland trip would’ve been completely out of our grasps since we were all heading home on the 22.
We left Kilkenny, the town we almost didn’t get to see due to shifting tours, in the early hours of Friday morning considering the trip to Portmagee was 173 miles, and though it said it would take us just short of 4 hours, we had to plan for stops along the way. We got into town with a little over an hour to spare, giving us time to check-in early at The Moorings, which is connected to the Bridge Bar, where Mark Hamill poured a pint of Guinness, but I’ll cover that a little later. Because now it’s time for the most important part: Skellig Michael (from a very near distance).
Just hopping on the boat and pulling out of the docks is rather magical, as within 20 minutes or so you can already pick up the entirety of Portmagee with the palm of your hand, while the rock formations down the channel are teases of what the two Skelligs, Little and Great, have to offer. Once we cleared the channel, the drive out to the islands was uneventful, which is a good thing despite myself getting soaked or the somewhat choppy state of the sea, as our driver David assured us this was the calmest trip he’s taken in quite some time. While the Skelligs were blocked from view by the ship’s nose, the anticipation rose unabated, with musical cues like “Rey’s Theme” and “The Jedi Steps and Finale”so easily replaying in my mind. The first stop on the tour was Little Skellig, and it’s no less wondrous than Greater…just this one is full of non-porg inspiring birds. And by full, I mean what looked like white dots from a distance resolved into hundreds upon hundreds of birds making their living on this isolated rock, swirling the skies above us (thankfully no one became target practice). It’s a good reminder that nature was here long before us and it’ll be here long after us (hopefully). As much as I enjoyed the littler of the islands, I was dying to get as close to Ahch-To as the weather permitted, and this amazing view showed us it was right around the corner:
8 miles off the coast of any landmass has an incredible, otherworldly feel to it, which really helps sell the mystical quality of an island like Skellig Michael. It felt like a different world out there, like the planet Ahch-To calls home maybe, and it’s easy to understand why, besides its history, the island was chosen as the site of the founding of the Jedi Order and Luke Skywalker’s retreat from the galaxy. It feels forgotten by time, left alone from civilization due to its isolation and nature’s prominence there, and the OPW’s hard work to keep it that way as a UNESCO World Heritage Site; They were continuing the work on the landing when we pulled alongside the island, part of the reason we had been unable to get a landing tour. From the boat, we could see such areas of the island from the films like: the rock Rey trains with the lightsaber, still in one piece on the island, called the Wailing Woman; where Luke was standing when Rey met him at the climax of The Force Awakens/beginning of The Last Jedi; some of the remaining honeycomb domes from the monks who lived there centuries ago, which inspired the look of the little village Luke calls home; of course the many, many “Jedi” steps Rey had to take to get up to Luke; and plenty of por…puffins, which I imagine would make the cutest animals in the world if a porg and a puffin had a baby. Even from a near distance, out on the water, these areas were easy to spot and a treat to see in person. Here are some choice shots of the Skelligs:
As you can glimpse in this article’s header image, Elliot, Felicia, and I had a bit of a photo op, wearing Mynock Manor T-shirts I designed (via Custom Ink) specifically for the trip! We’d been wearing coats for the duration of the tour, sometimes open so the other members of our group caught glimpses of the shirt, but all activity on the boat stopped when we threw off our coats to reveal the full splendor of the shirts; our driver, David, was all sorts of flummoxed, wondering what the heck was going on. I explained, as shortly and quickly as possible, how we met and the name on the shirt was my fansite, and one of our fellow travelers was awesome enough to take some photos of us. We took the photos in the shadow of the island where Luke was looking out towards before turning to find Rey before him, so my personal headcanon is Luke was staring out at us tourists. The goal was to take them FROM the spot Luke and Rey first met, but this was the best we could do and honestly these look spectacular anyways so I think it all worked out in the end! See the photoshoot below:
David was a great guide, as he had some fantastic little tidbits of the island’s history, though admittedly didn’t know much about the Star Wars related stuff, but he gave us at least an extra hour on our tour, if not a little more. Before we approached Skellig Michael, we caught sight of a whale and chilled around, trying to see it once again; I missed it because I was trying to snap it through the fancy camera I borrowed from my father, while Elliot was able to Face Time with his parents, which was surprising it worked so far out. On the way back to Portmagee, we spotted dolphins and David chased them around and got us some great opportunities for footage/pictures, while he gave us all a chance to drive the boat for a little bit (though we won’t talk about my performance in that area). From his easy-going demeanor to his friendly deposition, I couldn’t have imagined a better boat guide than David. If you happen to book through Skelligs Rock, you won’t be disappointed.
Despite not going on the actual island, the Eco tour was an absolute blast, and totally worth doing if you can’t manage to get a landing tour booked. Obviously, the Mynocks are all itching to go back and get on the island, as we were so close, and it looks like Elliot and Felicia will manage to get that chance much sooner than I…which I’m totally not jealous of AT ALL. Seriously, I am happy they’ll get a chance, and I wish I could join them, but it’s just not in the cards for me this year. They made excellent travel companions and survived putting up with me, and I can’t thank them enough for the time we had together. It’s going to be a goal of mine to return to Skellig, as even though the 602 steps to the top still sounds rather intimidating, having seen the beauty of the island now I know it’s worth it.
Portmagee has certainly leaned into the Star Wars tourists, making me kind of want to have seen the little town before it catered so heavily to us fans, but I still loved it’s little slice of Ireland. The Bridge Bar has the images of Mark Hamill pouring his pint of Guinness, as well as a Irish Mirror article framed next to it; they’ve set up a picturesque station where you can “pour” your own pint of Guinness with a view from Skellig Michael as the backdrop (as seen in one of the pictures below); and they have a couple of plush porgs hiding amongst the liquor behind the bar. All the shops in town have Star Wars merchandise, with one shop displaying a golden bust of Luke Skywalker’s robed head (Mark Hamill approved, even), that the store’s worker and owner have no idea what the artist wants to sell it for, but they have his contact info if you’re interested. All over the town itself, specifically the Skellig Michael tour areas, is Star Wars-related signage. Portmagee had a big Star Wars Day celebration over the May the Fourth weekend. And heck, the town called itself Porgmagee for the release of The Last Jedi. You can’t blame them for catering to fans who make the pilgrimage out, and it’s fascinating both because of how prevalent it is and how it feels like some of them might not be happy about it, but do it anyways because it helps business. It’s really a welcoming, friendly atmosphere to the town, though nearly every place in Ireland we went is, and despite its size and being on the edge of Ireland, Portmagee is a town I look forward to seeing again for my eventual second pilgrimage. Check out the Tourist Gallery for photos of the things I’ve mentioned above (and some I’ll mention below):
Here are a few other things:
- We ran into another SW fan at the Bridge Bar, a solo traveler from Germany, who chose to stay in Portmagee for several days prior to his Monday landing trip. We don’t know if he ever managed to go on his tour, as his day was canceled, or if he stuck around long enough to get a new landing tour or at least an Eco tour like us.
- (See Photos in the Tourist Gallery) Without realizing it, on our drive out of Portmagee for Killarney to continue our trip, we randomly stopped at the Skellig Gift Store, which has a giant Star Wars section in its basement, including, get this…a free photo booth area where they have a bunch of Halloween-style costumes hanging up for you to change into, while they were playing The Force Awakens on repeat. Didn’t take advantage of the photo booth, but love the idea!
- (See Photo in the Tourist Gallery) Also having some fun with Star Wars was Skelligs Chocolate, which has a photo board you stick your head into, with the character options of Kylo Ren and BB-8?!? Weird pairing, but we took advantage of that, and the free chocolate on the free tour!
- My full Ireland trip entailed: Visiting Derry up in Northern Ireland to see an old family friend I last saw as a child; a day in Dublin where I first met up with Elliot and Felicia, primarily focused on the Guinness tour; Kilkenny, it’s castle, shops, and pubs; Portmagee for our Skellig tour; Killarney Park, a gorgeous, expansive bit of scenery/driving around the Ring of Kerry; Killarney proper for an evening pint/brunch the following day with friends of Elliot and Felicia; and the final day in Dundalk to watch a local football (see: soccer) match with another friend of theirs.
Technically Skellig Michael is the second Star Wars filming location I visited, though considering the first is Canary Wharf, the London Underground tube station used briefly in a Rogue One scene, I’m going to count Ahch-To as the first one as it’s pretty easy and simple to see the tube stop. It’s well-worth the adventure if you can make it, and hopefully you can get a landing tour in, because if you don’t, the island…it’s calling to you to return before you know it.
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.
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