Where the Atlantic Breaks

Monks, Shipwrecks, and Vanished Keepers on Ireland's Western Edge

From the monastic pinnacle of Skellig Michael to the abandoned village of St Kilda, this tour follows the Atlantic's assault on the western edges of Ireland and Scotland -- through lighthouse tragedies, wartime torpedoes, Armada wrecks, and communities that clung to rock until the rock won.

Itinerary

1. 618 Steps to God — On a pyramidal rock eight miles off the Kerry coast, sixth-century monks built a monastery that clings to the Atlantic sky.
2. Ireland's Teardrop — The last piece of Ireland that emigrant ships passed on their way to America -- a lighthouse on a rock that earned the name 'Ireland's Teardrop.'
3. The Torpedo That Changed the War — On May 7, 1915, a German submarine torpedoed the Lusitania off the Old Head of Kinsale, killing 1,198 people and dragging America toward war.
4. Where Robinson Crusoe Set Sail — This picturesque harbor has witnessed Spanish invasions, British sieges, and served as the departure point for Alexander Selkirk -- the real Robinson Crusoe.
5. The Next Parish Is America — On the Dingle Peninsula, the Irish language survives, beehive huts dot the hillsides, and the next landfall west is Newfoundland.
6. 340 Million Years of Stone — The Burren is a limestone desert that should not exist in rainy Ireland -- a moonscape of cracked rock hiding orchids, medieval churches, and 340-million-year-old fossils.
7. The Armada's Graveyard — In September 1588, three ships of the Spanish Armada were driven onto Streedagh Strand by Atlantic storms. Over a thousand men drowned within sight of shore.
8. The Keepers Who Vanished — On December 26, 1900, a relief vessel arrived at the Flannan Isles lighthouse to find the light dark, the table set for dinner, and all three keepers gone. They were never found.
9. Britain's Last Outpost — For two thousand years, a community survived on these impossible sea stacks forty miles into the Atlantic. In 1930, the last thirty-six residents asked to be evacuated.