Matt Le Blanc and Chris Evans being presented with some Skellig Wars T-shirts by RTE television presenter Paschal Sheehy during the filming of Top Gear on the Dingle Penninsula in Southwest Ireland

Most boat trips to Skellig Michael are a calm enough affair but this trip wasn't on a normal day ... far from it.

It was touch and go as to whether or not there would be a landing that day but after consultation between the shore crew on Skellig Michael and the Captain of SkelligWalker we put to sea.  Days like this are not for everyone but what a fantastic trip !  the boat took every wave easily in its stride and we landed safely on the rock that is Skellig Michael .... and unbelievably the trip home later was almost flat calm.

Even if you’ve never been to Skellig Michael, you can picture it: A giant beak of stone rising from the sea and pointing at the sky. You’ve heard about its monastic settlement, its rich birdlife, and its fascination for Star Wars: The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams, but if you are afraid of heights, all you can think about is that giant beak of stone pointing 218 metres up in the air. You wonder how anybody could trot up the sheer face of Skellig Michael to the top, let alone build a hermitage there, and you vow that the closest you will ever get to it is on a nice little boat trip around its base. Then a friend of you invites you to go with them, a relative promises Xanax, and the sun settles into a warm glowing purr over the western Atlantic.

Getting There

Some people call it vertigo, the correct medical term is acrophobia, and my version of it is sheer sweaty terror at anything higher than a bar stool, but it’s easy to forget on the boat out to Skellig Michael. The sky overhead is a scorched blue even at 10am, and the sea is a sparkling of white-tipped wavelets. Gannets and fulmars start to appear, wheeling and screeching overhead as we approach the Little Skellig, a mighty chunk of crag-crusted rock that retains its majesty despite a layer of guano that must add several feet to its height. By the time we swing around the base of Skellig Michael, I’m in ridiculously high spirits (I turned down the offer of Xanax, by the way) and have forgotten the entire object of this trip.

Misgivings

Then, as the boat bobs and lurches to a stop at the ancient little pier, I have time to look up, a long way up, toward the top of what is effectively a tower of rock. And, like towers everywhere, this one is fairly lacking in nice, covered walkways. In fact, if it wasn’t apparent already, the helpful guide reveals that the only way to the monastic settlement above is via a series of teetering stone steps. Steps from which, he cheerfully informs us, two visitors have fallen to their deaths within the previous 12 months. It strikes me then that it is really quite pleasant here at the base of Skellig Michael, and that I would be quite happy staying right where I am, soaking up the sunshine, looking out at the white peak of Little Skellig and listening to the birds until the boat leaves again. Really, I’m grand.

A (Rising) Fall from Grace

But “grand” won’t cut it. Not when it is probably the most perfect day of the year (or any year) to see Skellig Michael in all its mystical, monastic glory. So, we climb the steps, me on the inside, interspersing my silent prayers with gibbering “I can’t! No, I can’t” and variations thereof. At various points, I am most ashamed to admit, I have to be dragged along by my belt. These are not my finest moments. But then the climbing stops and we reach Christ’s Saddle, the relatively flat and open area at the base of the pinnacle where a particularly unsocial monk chose to build his hermitage. I see one of the other people from the boat minus her companions. She is sitting alone on the grass, smiling vacantly in the direction of our ultimate destination and looking rather dazed. I get a bad feeling. “I took a look and decided against it,” she reveals.  I don’t understand. The beehive huts are just feet away. But then I take a look, and I see why our travelling companion has stalled. The last few feet of the path hug the side of the rock, and the other side—well, the other side is just air.

Heaven on Earth

The end of the journey is something like childbirth: It’s all a bit of a blur, but when it’ finished, the result is pure euphoria. Right there, surrounded by the monks’ incredible creations, with painted puffins fluttering in and out, and the sun painting sea and rock in a glorious welter of heat and light, it is pure heaven. And I plan on visiting heaven only once.

Choosing the right locations is the first step to any successful shoot – whether it’s a promotional video or the next instalment in one of the world’s biggest movie franchises. So when the creators of Star Wars: The Force Awakens went scouting for locations, the shortlist of candidates had to be spectacular.

Think Tunisia for the Tatooine desert scenes, Switzerland for the snowy wastes of Alderaan, or an erupting Mount Etna in Italy for the backdrop to Anakin Skywalker and Obi Wan-Kenobi’s lightsaber duel in Episode 3. All of the earthly settings for this epic voyage across a galaxy far, far away have been singularly awe-inspiring. That makes Skellig Michael a perfect choice. Here are some other reasons why Skellig Michael was selected as a Star Wars location:

It Matched the Script:

The first rule of location scouting is to select a site that suits the setting of your story. Star Wars: The Force Awakens production referred to Skellig Michael as “Magic Mountain,” in reference to the Six Flags theme park outside Los Angeles, with locals calling it “The Jedi”—a good description for the place where Luke Skywalker is believed to be hidden away, meditating in exile. Nowhere else in the world would the Star Wars creators have found such an exquisite collection of monastic dwellings perched high above the ocean.

It Changed to Suit the Script:

For The Force Awakens, J. J. Abrams wanted as clear a day as possible for the shoot to suit the film’s positive ending, and Skellig Michael duly obliged. Once Rian Johnson moved in for Star Wars VIII and the story developed, however, bad weather was preferred to suit the Original Trilogy form and the dark ending required. As anyone who has visited knows, Skellig Michael is heavenly on a good day, but it can get positively apocalyptic when the weather turns.

The Light is Exceptional:

Outdoor lighting conditions can be challenging for filmmakers, as outside illumination changes constantly—and when you are on an exposed rock in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, they can shift from searing brightness to deep shadow and back again even more quickly. These conditions proved challenging for the Star Wars film crew, but added to the overall atmosphere of the shoot.

They Got Permission:

Despite objections by several organisations because of the perceived sensitivity of the UNESCO world heritage site, Lucasfilm secured permission from the Irish Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Heather Humphries, to shoot on Skellig Michael. Strict environmental and ecological conditions laid down to ensure the filming did not damage the site and its bird life included the inclusion of an on-site ecologist to supervise the filming. A report compiled by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the National Monuments Service, and the Office of Public Works (OPW), said the filming had “no impact on the national monument.”

The Place was Deserted:

Boat trips to Skellig Michael were cancelled for the duration of both shoots on the island. Given that there is no other way of getting to Skellig, the film crew had the place to themselves – apart from a few puffins keen to get in on the action as extras…

Can you think of any other reasons why Skellig Michael was chosen as a Star Wars location (not once, but twice!)?