Sometime between the 6th and 8th centuries, some foolhardy group of monks in Ireland rowed out to an island 7km off the southwest coast and founded a monastery. They and their successors lived there continuously, about a dozen at a time, contemplating God amidst the storms and the tides and a truly unholy number of seabirds. They left late in the 12th century, although not before they had managed to carve a number of stairs from the shore all the way to the top of the island, where they constructed their monastery.

Skellig Michael is a bewildering splinter of rock jutting out from Saint Finian’s Bay. It’s quite inhospitable — tour groups are only able to land about 75% of the time, owing to the weather — and the number of tourists are strictly limited to cut down on damage to the island. It’s maybe best known these days for being where Luke Skywalker lives in The Last Jedi.

What you get, being there, is an almost unbelievable trek from the base to the peak. It’s a steep hike to the top, stairs after stairs, until you finally get to that small monastery. But every view you pass on the way is breathtaking, and you can stand, 50 stories above the water on a narrow path with no railing twisting around the summit, and gaze out over the Atlantic, and wonder whether your heart is pumping because of the height or the hike or just the view.