The award of International Dark-Sky Reserve came from the International Dark-Sky Association (www.darksky.org). This means that on clear moonless nights the sky along the Skellig Coast is simply stunning; with many more astronomical sights to be seen with the naked eye as can be seen say in the Grand Canyon or the Desert Plains of Africa.

This is the ONLY Gold Tiered Reserve in the whole of the Northern Hemisphere. It is the only Reserve that has a playground, a church, a little pub, a hostel, a graveyard, several beaches, a listed house – Derrynane House & Gardens ...and ....a chocolate factory. It takes in Kells, Caherciveen, Portmagee, Valentia Island, The Glen, Ballinskelligs, Waterville, Dromid and Derrynane/Caherdaniel.

The Reserve has two sections: the Core Zone and the Buffer Zone. Usually the Core Zone is the darkest part of a Dark-Sky Reserve, except in Kerry’s Reserve a lot of places in the Buffer Zone have equally dark areas.

One of the major assets of having a natural dark sky is that you can view the sky as our ancestors did. Without the aid of any instrument other than your own eyes you will see thousands of stars varying in size and color, you’ll easily see the band of our own home Milky Way Galaxy, Nebula’s, other galaxies, clusters, planets, satellites, nebulas and falling stars.

On clear moonless nights it is hard to actually see these Constellations at first as there are simply too many stars and it takes quite awhile for your eyes to start making out the patterns. But once you do, you won’t want to look anywhere else!