When the Norse and their female Irish slaves arrived in Iceland in 870, there was already a colony of Irish monks on the south coast, living in caves and living in splendid isolation with their God. There are accounts of them living in what became known much later as the monastery site of Kirkjubaerjarklaustur. There is just something about the place.  First, a look around in the summer sun.

Here’s the “Church Floor”, basalt columns eroded by ancient waves.

And the rumoured centre of Irish life.

And now in the summer rain. Note the change of light!

Here’s the “Nun’s Falls”, from a much later catholicism.

And now some late Autumn (2016)  pics, with the sun barely making it above the sea.
A splendid place for meditation and prayer!

Unwilling to share the purity of God with heathens, the monks left in their skin boats. Their ghosts remain. I wonder if the women were sad to see them go.