The story
Photograph: University of Applied Sciences, Augsburg, Germany (image) · Public domain
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Wikimedia Commons
Sailed west from Kerry in a hide-covered boat looking for the Isle of the Blessed. The medieval account of the journey, the Navigatio Sancti Brendani, was one of the bestsellers of Europe and describes islands of fire, pillars of crystal and a whale mistaken for land. In 1976 Tim Severin built a leather curragh to the old specification and reached Newfoundland in it, proving the voyage was at least possible.
Worth knowing
Mount Brandon in Kerry, the pilgrim path to its summit, is named for him.
