Quest & Chorus #5: Crossing the Waves to Skellig Michael (special feat: Folk Songs & Stories #309)

The sea around Skellig Michael never rests. Waves slam the cliffs like a heartbeat, and mist rises from the rocks like breath from some sleeping giant. Eight miles off the Kerry coast, this jagged island looks less like a piece of earth and more like a fragment of another world.

More than a thousand years ago, monks climbed 600 stone steps to live here, chasing silence, prayer, and the edge of heaven. Today, visitors come for the same reason, though they may not know it. Whether you’re drawn by faith, history, or a galaxy far, far away, Skellig has a way of making you listen to what the sea remembers.

And that’s where today’s story begins — between exile and return, faith and freedom, stone and surf. Because sometimes, we’re all just trying to find our way back to the ocean. With Music from Niamh Dunne, Wolf Loescher, and Jocelyn Pettit & Ellen Gira.

This is Quest & Chorus #309

0:58 - Niamh Dunne "Ballyneety's Walls" from Portraits

4:17 - WELCOME TO QUEST & CHORUS

Welcome to Quest & Chorus, where every wave might carry a myth, and every exile still dreams of home. I’m your bard, Marc Gunn, also host of the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast, and typically host of this show as Folk Songs & Stories, but today, we call it Quest & Chorus. And today, we drift to the edge of the world, To Skellig Michael, where the sea swallows history and monks once whispered their prayers to gulls. It’s also where a Jedi gave up the fight. And where a selkie sings himself back into the sea. Today’s theme may seem like exile or perhaps it’s where you truly belong.

Quest & Chorus is a 6-part podcast series. I fuse my love of Celtic and folk music, science fiction and fantasy, and travel into a podcast with a quest. In each episode, you will get a clue to unlock a secret reward. And at the end of the season, you will combine all of those clues to unlock an even bigger amazing reward.

If you’re new to the show, please follow us. You can do that at PubSong.com.

UPCOMING SHOWS

• NOV 1: Georgia Renaissance Festival Fall Festival, Fairburn, GA
• NOV 8: IrishFest Atlanta, Roswell, GA with Inara
• NOV 14-16: CONjuration, Duluth, GA
• NOV 22: Georgia Renaissance Festival Fall Festival, Fairburn, GA
• DEC 6: Georgia Renaissance Festival Fall Festival, Fairburn, GA
• DEC 7: Nerdy Wonderland at The Lost Druid, Avondale Estates, GA @ 12 - 5 PM.

6:24 - Wolf Loescher "Rovin' Journeyman" from Child of Alba

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News

• If you’re looking for Celtic Halloween music, I have a large selection of such music. While my Happy Songs of Death album fits the bill, I also did a series of concerts inspired by that theme for several years. Follow the link in the shownotes for details.

A big thanks to my…

7:45 - GUNN RUNNERS ON PATREON

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9:47 - Jocelyn Pettit & Ellen Gira "Going Home" from Here To Stay

13:15 - TODAY’S SHOW IS BROUGHT TO BY CELTIC INVASION VACATIONS

Every year, I take a small group of people on a relaxing adventure to one of the Celtic nations. We don’t see everything. Instead we stay in one area. We get to know the region through its culture, history, and legends. You can join me with an auditory and visual adventure through podcasts, blogs, videos, and photos.

In 2026, you can join me for a Celtic Invasion of Galicia in Spain. Sign to the Celtic Invasion Vacations mailing list at CelticInvasion.com.

Let’s begin the…

13:47 - QUEST & CHORUS of SKELLIG MICHAEL

Eight miles off the coast of County Kerry is the island of Skellig Michael. It is a jagged twin-peaked island. Its name comes from the Irish Sceilg Mhichíl which means Michael’s Rock. It was dedicated to the Archangel Michael.

The island’s history began in the sixth century. Monks sought isolation and closeness to God. So they settled there because the early Irish monastic tradition valued hardship, solitude, and spiritual testing. The monks carved out a small community on narrow terraces more than 600 steps above sea level.

The monastic settlement they built still survives. They built a cluster of beehive stone huts, stone crosses and terraces connected by narrow paths. Everything was dry-stone construction. That means they were fitted together without mortar. They were built so well that they have lasted over a millennium. The monks grew small gardens, caught seabirds and fish, and collected rainwater in cisterns. They survived off of what the island would allow.

Skellig Michael was a center of devotion to Saint Michael the Archangel sometime after the 8th century. The island was also a pilgrimage site for centuries. Climbing its steps was seen as a form of penance and spiritual renewal.

By the 13th century, life on Skellig Michael had become too difficult. Storms, isolation, and changing Church patterns led the monks to relocate to the mainland, near Ballinskelligs. But the island remained a place of pilgrimage well into the modern era.

Skellig Michael is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is recognized for its exceptional preservation of early Christian monastic life and its haunting natural beauty. It’s also become familiar to a new generation as Ahch-To, the oceanic world where Luke Skywalker lived in exile in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi.

Even now, Skellig Michael stands as a symbol of endurance, of faith carved into stone, of solitude turned to sanctuary, and of the fragile bridge between human devotion and the raw power of nature.

LEGENDS OF SKELLIG MICHAEL

One of the more famous legends involves the Tuatha Dé Danann and the Milesian invasion of Ireland. It is recounted in the Lebor Gabála Érenn (the Book of Invasions). According to this myth:

• As the Milesians sailed toward Ireland around 1400 BC in the mythic narrative, a storm was caused by the Tuatha Dé Danann. They are one of the faerie-like supernatural race in Irish mythology. Skellig’s cliffs are sometimes mentioned as one of the treacherous places where ships were driven ashore.
• One version says Irr, a son of Míl Espáine (the mythic ancestor of the Gaels), was travelling from the Iberian Peninsula. He drowned and was buried on Skellig.

MY THOUGHTS on SKELLIG MICHAEL

20:02 - Marc Gunn “Selkie’s Life” from Come Adventure With Me

• Check out my blog of the puffins of Skellig Michael.
• Selkie's Life, Selkie Call of the Sea #234

Thank you for returning to the sea with me. Skellig Michael is not the end of the story. But it’s where stories are kept safe.

Next time, we wander the great alignments of Carnac, stones older than myth, standing like trees in time. Until then… If the sea calls you, don’t be afraid to answer.

23:39 - CREDITS

Thanks for listening to Quest & Chorus. This episode was edited by Mitchell Petersen.

You can follow and listen to the show on my Patreon or wherever you find podcasts. Sign up to my mailing list to learn more about songs featured in this podcast and discover where I’m performing.

Remember. Reduce, reuse, recycle, and think about how you can make a positive impact on your environment.

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