Valentia Island

Cross to Valencia Island by bridge to visit the Skellig Experience to learn about early Christian monks who braved a harsh existence on the rocky offshore islands. Continue your trip through the remote villages of Cahirciveen and Waterville.

Valentia, one of the largest islands off the South West coast of Kerry, is joined to the mainland by bridge via the Portmagee Channel. The island is one of great beauty and contrast. The western part of the island is dominated by the barren, dramatic cliffs of Bray Head which command spectacular views of the Kerry coastline while the mild effect of the Gulf Stream results in Valentia's balmy climate and lush, colourful vegetation.

In The Skellig Experience Centre you can experience many aspects of the offshore Skellig islands while remaining on the dry land! Here, through re-creations and models you can study the works and lives of the Skellig monks of the early Christian period, their activities, their endurance and their dedication in gaining a foothold on a tiny, inhospitable, offshore island and creating a community there that survived for some 600 years. In The Skellig Experience’s 80-seat auditorium, through a 16-minute audio-visual presentation you can follow the footsteps of those Skellig monks, and wonder at the legacy of architecture that they left behind.