Again in 825, as reported in the Annals of Ulster and Annals of lnnisfallen, the Vikings came and this time they took Etgal, Abbot of Skellig, and starved him to death. Legend tells that in 993 Viking Olav Trygvasson, who was later to become King of Norway and whose son Olav II, was to become patron saint of Norway, was baptised by a Skellig hermit. The gannet is Ireland's largest seabird, with a wingspan of two metres. Their breeding colonies are limited to eastern Canada, Iceland and North West Europe, and most are located on small islands and inaccessible cliffs. In Ireland there are four main colonies, the largest, with nearly 30,000 pairs, being on Sceilg Bheag.
Gannets catch fish by plunging into the shoals from a great height.
Brian Wilson described a visit to the Skelligs in his book, Dances with Waves about his journey by kayak around the entire coast of Ireland. It was not until I was within a mile of its cliffs that Little Skellig at last stood out as a distinct mass from Skellig Michael. The skyway filled to saturation with white, whirring adult birds. All around me guano-bombs began to splatter the sea's surface. It was like being the unarmed quarry in a paintball wargame as I battled onward, unable to retaliate, running a gauntlet of guano.