Like mighty ships that sail Atlantic foam
The Skellig Isles parade the Kerry coast
It's a strange place
With a needle's eye
Where shipwrecks lie
Where the king of the world
Rested for a while
And a place for the pilgrim
A sanctuary of time
Fourteen steps to nowhere
Out of solid stone
Don't lead us to the heavens
Or lead us to the sea
The Vikings came to plunder and destroy
But to this day the holy relics stand
In a blind man’s cove
Where the wailing woman sighs
And the seagulls cry
Where the king of the world
Rested for a while
And a place for the pilgrim
A sanctuary of time
Fourteen steps to nowhere
Out of solid stone
Don't lead us to the heavens
Or lead us to the sea
A journey to these islands so rare
The sound of screaming souls that fill the air
A thousand wings
Against the sky
And grey seal's disguised
Where the king of the world
Rested for a while
And a place for the pilgrim
A sanctuary of time
Fourteen steps to nowhere
Out of solid stone
Don't lead us to the heavens
Or lead us to the sea
The Skellig Isles parade the Kerry coast
It's a strange place
With a needle's eye
Where shipwrecks lie
Rested for a while
And a place for the pilgrim
A sanctuary of time
Fourteen steps to nowhere
Out of solid stone
Don't lead us to the heavens
Or lead us to the sea
But to this day the holy relics stand
In a blind man’s cove
Where the wailing woman sighs
And the seagulls cry
Rested for a while
And a place for the pilgrim
A sanctuary of time
Fourteen steps to nowhere
Out of solid stone
Don't lead us to the heavens
Or lead us to the sea
The sound of screaming souls that fill the air
A thousand wings
Against the sky
And grey seal's disguised
Rested for a while
And a place for the pilgrim
A sanctuary of time
Fourteen steps to nowhere
Out of solid stone
Don't lead us to the heavens
Or lead us to the sea
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
The Skellig Islands, Skellig Michael and Small Skellig, stand aloof in the Atlantic Ocean some 12 km southwest of Valentia Island, County Kerry. Michael is the westernmost sacred site along a long line of ancient pilgrimage places running from western Ireland through France, Italy and Greece, and then onto Mt. Carmel in the Palestine. This line, sometimes called the Apollo/St. Michael axis was known thousands of years before the advent of Christianity and linked the venerated holy places of St. Michael’s Mount, Mont St Michel, Bourges, Perugia, Monte Gargano, Delphi, Athens and Delos From any angle, or from any vantage point on the nearby Ring of Kerry, they are spectacular pinnacles, which have magnetized viewers throughout all history – and beyond.
These Skellig islands are world-famous, each in its own right: Skellig Michael is known throughout the world of archaeology as the site of a well-preserved monastic outpost of the Early Christian period – now designated a World Heritage Site; Small Skellig is equally renowned in matters of ornithology as the home of some 27,000 pairs of gannets – the second largest colony of such seabirds in the world.
A wisp of cloud often adorning the peaks of these pinnacles creates a volcanic impression! But there is nothing volcanic about these Skelligs rocks; they are created of the same 350–million-year-old Devonian Sandstone that runs right through the backbone of Kerry - from the county’s south-western headlands to the shores of Killarney's lakes.
This is a fantastic song.