I had to readjust my list of the most beautiful spots in Ireland one bright late-May morning in Kilshannig.
It is at the tip of the Maharee peninsula – once an island but now long connected to the Kerry mainland by a narrow strip of sand.
From it are views of the Atlantic Ocean, the ‘Seven Hogs’ islands, Brandon Bay and Tralee Bay. Elsewhere you can find such a combination of sand, sea, mountains and wide sky but in Kilshannig they come together impressively.
I am not the only one who has discovered that. The area is not deserted. It has a healthy mixture of old cottages, new wide-windowed bungalows and provisional windsurf centres but the panorama is so sweeping the view is not destroyed.
I had gone there to find Seannach (Shannig), after whom the area is called. In the 6th century he went with a few companions to Illauntannig, one of the ‘Seven Hogs’, to set up an island retreat. At its contact point with the mainland he built his huts on a small hill now occupied by a ruin and a graveyard, Kilshannig.
Little is known of him. His brother Senan, of Scattery Island in Clare, is famous as one of the ‘Twelve Apostles of Ireland’. He was a well-read scholar and exceptional traveller who had been to Britain, France and Rome but Seannach lived a quieter life. What testimony there is to him lies in the stones on his island. Parts of the cashel wall remain. It surrounded two oratories, three bee-hive huts, three outdoor altars, a burial-ground and a stone cross.
Back in Kilshannig, its ruined church was built in the 14th century. Inside its walls is preserved a cross-pillar slab from the 7th century. It has a rare Greek style Chi Rho cross carved on it
I would have liked to go out and visit the island but readily accept the reports of those who did. What I could do, for an hour on that sunny May morning, was walk around the ruined church and curved sandy beach to enjoy the moment.
I felt that if I was ever tempted to build a hut in order to reflect and read, it would be at Kilshannig.
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