Dingle Peninsula - Tralee ( Castleisland)

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Despite the overcast weather the Tour continues south towards the Dingle Peninsula which is in county Kerry and the westernmost point of Ireland. Or the next Parish to America 😊 This is a staunch Irish Catholic area where, to their credit, they managed to retain the Gaelic language and customs even when occupied by the English.

It is dotted with beautiful farms and villages painted with bright colours and loads of thatched roofs. Idyllic scenery which you can't imagine can get any more lovely until you actually arrive on the peninsula. And we were lucky enough to have the front most seats on the bus !

Here the concept of Ireland being green is obvious. It is so vivid photos do it poor justice. The hedgerows are studded with red fushias and yellow gorse add to the colour palette. The grass is so lush the cows seemed to all be sitting about or sleeping. In Australia they chew grass all day but here the quality of the feed gave them all extra time for chilling out. It explains why the cream in Ireland is 'to die for'. The hillsides were like patchwork quilts, outlined with stone fences covered in many places with creepers etc.

The wild Irish Sea lashes out at the coastline and around each bend in the road (and there were many) magnificent views abound. The grey cliffs drop steeply into the sea sharply contrasted with the almost iridescent green of the grass.

Here you would find stone 'Beehive' huts made by the monks long long ago for use as a religious retreat. They would come as a pilgrimage and pray inside these huts, thus keeping the Catholic religious customs alive in this country.

The 1970 film Ryan's Daughter takes place at a village on the Dingle Peninsula in the immediate aftermath of the 1916 Easter Rising. If get a chance to watch this movie you will understand why I am waffling on about the beauty of this part of the world.

Lunch was at the quaint village of Dingle. We ended our day at Castleisland in an older style hotel.
Later that evening we went to an Irish Ceilidh (pronounced like Kay lee) evening of traditional music, singing, dancing and jokes (craic - pronounced crack) . One of the group was a man named Brendan. He was chubby and plain faced but once he opened his mouth to sing it was a like a male version of Susan Boyle was performing. Astonishing !

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