Skellig safety work concluded

THE OPW have completed the construction of new safety canopies to protect visitors to Skellig Michael.

The repair works and extension of the canopy on Lighthouse Road – the main access path used to access the island’s famous monastic settlement – were needed after a major rockfall sent rocks and a large boulder plummeting onto the pathway earlier this year.

“The major damage occurred earlier this year when a large section of rock fractured at a high level on the slopes above the Lighthouse Road, the main visitor access to the famous Monastery site, and fell into the sea, on its way, crashing into and severely damaging the Road and its seaward boundary wall and badly compromising the access to the Monastery,” said an OPW spokesperson.

When this was discovered in March last, it gave rise to significant fears that the Island would not be able to open to visitors this year owing to the severe safety risk that it presented and the OPW commenced a major rebuilding and safety project to ensure that the damage was repaired and continued visitor access facilitated,” said the OPW.

The work involved the rebuilding of two major sections of wall which had been either demolished or undermined by the rockfall and the extension of the protective wooden canopy to protect visitors from further material which is still, on occasion, falling from the upper slopes.

The works are now complete and have been signed off on by the OPW.

The OPW added that by the end of June 5,232 people had visited the island, 12,260 visited it last year.

The extended canopy built by the OPW at Skellig Michael