The Environmental Impact of Star Wars on Skellig Michael
A guest post from Rachel Gough, a PhD researcher in the Department of Film and Screen Media at University College Cork.
Skellig Michael, an island 11.6km west of the Iveragh Peninsula in County Kerry, Ireland, found international fame as Ahch-To, the home of a world-weary Luke Skywalker in Star Warsfilms The Force Awakens (2015) and The Last Jedi (2017).[i] The ancient Christian monastic site (one of only two UNESCO World Heritage sites in Ireland), proved a fitting home for the reclusive Jedi, as the monastic structures (beehive huts, stone carved steps) of Skellig were adopted into the set design of the film and Skywalker himself practices a life of asceticism not dissimilar to that practiced by the monks of Skellig 1300 years ago.
In addition to its UNESCO status, Skellig Michael is also designated as a Statutory Nature Reserve link here https://www.conserveireland.com/national/statutory-nature-reserve – :~:text=Statutory Nature Reserves offer the,Areas of Conservation (SACs) and a Special Protection Area (SPA) link here https://www.npws.ie/protected-sites/spa. ‘Statutory Nature Reserves offer the most rigorous protection mechanism in Ireland,’[ii] while the designation of an area as a SPA is intended to protect ‘listed rare and vulnerable [bird] species.’[iii] Skellig Michael is owned by the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht on behalf of the Irish people and is primarily managed as a National Monument in state ownership. Accessing the island is difficult, for after the sea voyage the island is ‘reached initially by a means of narrow ledges and then by climbing up with the aid of rock-cut hand and foot holds.’[iv]
Considering this, Skellig hardly makes for an inviting film location and yet The Force Awakens was not the island’s first on-screen appearance (it features in Werner Herzog’s Heart of Glass, 1976, and Neil Jordan’s film Byzantium, 2012). However, Birdwatch Ireland claimed the shooting of Star Wars on the island had a negative impact on bird populations including the Manx shearwater and the European storm petrel.[v]
To understand the negative impact Star Wars’production has had on Skellig and why this franchise, in particular, is a cause for concern amongst environmental agencies and advocates, we need to look at several specifics of the productions and consider the films’ use as advertising for Skellig Michael as a tourist destination.
In 2016, Claire O’ Halloran, an Office of Public Works guide who had worked on Skellig Michael, claimed that then Minister for Heritage, Heather Humphreys (who in her role as minister was responsible for the Irish Film Board, the National Monuments Service and the National Parks and Wildlife Service) ‘gave filming the go-ahead based on incomplete ecological data.’[vi] O’ Halloran also claimed that production conditions were breached and that the [Irish] film board, which promoted the location, appeared to ‘completely unaware’ of the sensitivity of Skellig Michael. The Irish Times reported link here https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/concern-over-incidents-during-star-wars-filming-on-skellig-michael-1.2532753 that during The Force Awakens’ production, damage was caused to several of the island’s archaeological monuments and during a helicopter reconnaissance mission ahead of the film’s first shoot a group of kittiwake chicks were swept into the sea by a down drought and eaten by gulls.[vii] When consent was sought from Humphreys to film The Last Jedi on the island her decision was reportedly informed by an assessment conducted by an engineering consultancy firm, which gave an overview of the sites sustainability for filming between June and August. But filming was scheduled to take place in September, when Manx shearwaters would still be nesting on the island.
The use of Skellig Michael as a location has also seen its popularity rise as a tourist destination with an increase of 16% in visitor numbers between 2015 and 2016 and an increase of 33% between 2016 and 2017. While this increase has provided economic uplift in the Iveragh Peninsula, a 2018 study reveals that staff directly involved with the management of visitors to the island reported ‘Star Warsfans trespassing off the standard walking paths into ecologically sensitive areas when attempting to recreate scenes from The Force Awakens.’[viii] One staff member noted that ‘there’s plenty of data to show that the island can’t sustain such a project [Star Wars filming] and also that it can’t sustain the promotion that would follow such a project.’[ix]
Fast forward to 2023 and Irish cinema is receiving widespread acclaim and international recognition, with fourteen nominations at the 2023 Academy Awards including, but not limited to, ‘Best Film Editing,’ ‘Best International Film,’ and ‘Best Live Action Film’. It’s a record-breaking number of nominations for work by Irish screen practitioners that would have seemed a fantastical possibility when Star Wars went into production. Yet, while the franchise has boosted the revenue available to fund indigenous film productions, it has come at a cost to Skellig Michael; a monument of international significance, integral to Ireland’s history, whose ecology we are only beginning to understand.
Films Cited
Byzantium. Directed by Neil Jordan, Demarest Films, 2013.
Heart of Glass. Directed by Werer Herzog, Werner Herzog Filmproduktion, 1976.
Star Wars Episode IV: The Force Awakens. Directed by J. J. Abrams, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, 2015.Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi. Directed by Rian Johnson, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, 2017.
[i] Edward Bourke describes the island in more detail in “Management of Isolated Islands: The Example of Sceilg Mhichíl, Ireland.” Internet Archaeology, no. 54, 2020. Online at https://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue54/14/. Please hyperlink
[ii] Conserve Ireland, “Statutory Nature Reserve,” 2018. Online at https://www.conserveireland.com/national/statutory-nature-reserve – :~:text=Statutory Nature Reserves offer the,Areas of Conservation (SACs). Please hyperlink
[iii] National Parks and Wildlife Service. “Special Protected Areas.” 2023. Online at https://www.npws.ie/protected-sites/spa. Please hyperlink
[iv] Bramhill, Nick. “Puffins in the Wars: Skellig Michael’s Iconic Birds Face a Bleak Future – Despite being Immortalised in the Last Jedi [Eire Region].” Mail on Sunday, 2017.
[v] Lorna Siggins, “Concern Over ‘Incidents’ During Star Wars Filming on Skellig Michael,” Irish Times, February 13, 2016. Online athttps://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/concern-over-incidents-during-star-wars-filming-on-skellig-michael-1.2532753. Please hyperlink
[vi] Ibid.
[vii] Ibid.
[viii] Annie Allen and Mick Lennon, “The Values and Vulnerabilities of ‘Star Wars Island’: Exploring Tensions in the Sustainable Management of the Skellig Michael World Heritage Site,” International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology 25, no. 6 (2018): 486. Online at https://doi.org/10.1080/13504509.2018.1436093. Please hyperlink
[ix] Ibid.