Dingle Peninsula

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Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Dingle Town & Peninsula, Ireland
After dining on Tuesday evening at the Adare Manor Country Club, I awoke ready to play some golf. We hurried through breakfast, checked out of our nice B&B and headed for the course. Upon arrival we discovered that there was a junior competition about to start and the course would be closed until 10:00am. A late start would delay our drive south so that was out of the question. A second problem was also developing. Rain!
We decided that it might be better to move on and play golf somewhere else or not at all if the rain continued. So, we drove towards the Dingle Peninsula. We had not yet decided on where we would sleep but we wanted to see the town. We would decide later where to stop for the night.
As we drove, the weather worsened. It rained heavy non-stop for most of the day. I guess I made the right decision on golf. Driving was slower than normal but we were not in a hurry.
We arrived in Dingle about lunch time and stopped long enough to see some of the village. I had a pint of Carlsberg as we talked to a couple about the rain. They said it was the first good rain in more than a month!
The town of Dingle or in Gaelic ‘An Daingean’ (pronounced “on Dang-un”), is the small town where you start the drive around the peninsular. Being a Gaeltacht, the entire region gets subsidies from the Irish government (which supports the survival of the traditional Irish culture and language). A precondition of this support is that the towns must use their Gaelic name. But the town of Dingle is so renowned the locals complained and they have been allowed to just call it “Dingle”.
Then we set out to drive the peninsula. The rain lightened up some and we got a good view of the coast. We saw several sites where movies had been made. One was Ryan’s Daughter with Robert Mitchum and the other was Far and Away with Tom Cruise and Nicolle Kidman. Our guidebook pointed out the houses where they lived during the filming. Mitchum lived there for a year.
We also saw lots of rock walls. I have not mentioned the walls before but I should. The west coast of Ireland is rocky. We first noticed how rocky it was when we passed through the Burren on our way to the Cliffs of Mohr. In order to farm the land, the rocks were removed and made into paddock walls. The more rocks you had, the smaller the paddocks. The walls were used as fences and were about four feet high. On the Dingle Peninsula, some of the walls ran up the sides of hills. We even saw a restaurant that was totally made out of rocks, roof and all.
We left the peninsula and drove to Killarney. Arriving about 3:00pm, we found the Best Western hotel where Dianne and Pam stayed. The price seemed high but we did not care. We were tired and ready for a rest. This time I think my nap was about two hours!
There is lots of night life in Killarney. We had dinner in a very interesting restaurant, The Flesk. It had American Flags in the window over the door. I was intrigued and we went in. All around the walls were American Legion signs. I asked the waiter about it and found that the owner had served in the American Army during the Viet Nam war. He has made the restaurant into a certified American Legion Post. The waiter told me that he was sitting in the back of the restaurant so I went back and had a chat with him. He told me that in the 60s he migrated to Boston (or was it New York; can’t remember). During those days if you were there for more than six months you had to register for the draft. He got drafted and spent a year in Nam. As with most Irish, he had lots of jokes and we had some good laughs.
We returned to our hotel and entered their pub, the Danny Mann. There was live music which was great. We got lucky and got a good seat near the front. We did what we frequently do with live performances, we bought the CD. I’ll play it for you when we return.
That’s it for Wednesday. I was thinking golf again for Thursday, but it would be weather dependent.
Cheers.

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Photos

Dingle Peninsula
This is an overlook where the scene in the Tom Cruise movie was made.

Rock House Restaurant
We stopped for some soup here on the Dingle Peninsula.

On the drive
We saw this crucifixion scene by the road side on a tight turn.

Views
A typical view from the drive.

Jackie in famous pub
There is a point on the drive which is the most western point in all of Europe. This pub claims to be the last pub before Boston!

Killarney
Here's the hotel where we stayed. It is the same as where Dianne and Pam stayed on their trip.

The Flesk Restaurant
Here is the American Legion Post in Killarney.

American Legion
Here are some of the tags sent to the owner.

Tom and the Owner of the Restaurant
I got a few good laughs from the owner. I got his name but have already forgotten. Sorry.

Irish Music
We heard these guys in the hotel Pub, Danny Mann.