Oratory at Skellig Michael

The monastery at Skellig Michael is not a big place. There were a few stone huts and the ruins of an old church. It doesn’t seem like there would have been a lot of people living on the island, since it would be impossible to sustain a large population here. A lot of stuff had to be brought in from the mainland, including animals. Indeed, farm animals were among the ones which were brought here. Curiously enough, there were other small mammals brought here such as rabbits which turned out to be bad for the local puffin. Although the people here decided to isolate themselves from the rest of the world, they somehow brought some of the world with them.

One of the structures here is an oratory or a chapel. It has a distinctive inverted boat shape which seems to be common in this part of the country. The oratory was also built using the corbelling method. Unsurprisingly, the oratory is also a church, I’m not sure what the difference is. Since there was a Church of Saint Michael here too. I don’t think there were enough people here to support having two churches. Then again, the zeal of early Christians was very impressive. Perhaps they had a lot of visitors.

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