Just past Caherciveen on Ireland's Ring of Kerry drive, it is possible to take a ferry over to Valencia Island, and from there to visit the Skelligs. Valencia Island can also be reached by a bridge that crosses from Portmagee.
Valencia Island was where the Atlantic cable made landfall in the mid-19th century after leaving Newfoundland. It was also the first place in Europe where footprints of the tetrapod were discovered. The dinosaur came ashore there about 350 million years ago and left its tracks in the Devonian sediments. Learn more in the small community-run museum.
The Skellig Islands are a UNESCO World Heritage site. Great Skellig, also known as Skellig Michael, is a bird-watcher's paradise with puffins and storm petrels and the ruins of the seventh-century Skellig Michael Monastery. You can take a boat trip to visit the island. Little Skellig has a population of some 40,000 gannets, but is off limits to people.
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