Killarney and Ring of Kerry

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After a night of lost sleep due to ‘boy racers’ all night (thought they were only in NZ!) we left Killarney at 8.50 and headed in an anti clockwise direction around the Ring of Kerry. The maps all advised to go in this direction but surely many people had ignored that advice. The road is not wide, it is twisty, uneven and certainly not fast. It seemed a bit strange that so much money had been poured into the motorways and main tourist routes, like the Ring of Kerry, had only a very good road in odd places. Most of the surface is patched and uneven though some of that may be due to bog or rocks under the surface.

Our first stop down along the Dingle Bay inlet coast was at a Bog Museum which was interesting but not worth what we paid for it. There was a lot about peasant farming with model houses and a farm but little about peat bogs. There was some but not as much as we expected but I guess it did show us how it was formed and how it was dug out and used. What else is there to know about peat bog you might ask?

We got grand views out over the bay to the Dingle Peninsula in the distance. There was surprisingly a lot more development and residences than we expected on this rugged landscape. The further west we went the more rugged and scrubby the landscape turned with the vegetation being heather, bracken and something with a very small white flower. There was also a lot of a very small fuschia we see at home growing all over the peninsula and I read that this had come in from Chile. Even though this may all sound not so attractive, it is in fact quite beautiful in a landscape of rounded off hills, rugged rocky hills, a rocky coastline and moody clouds or rain hanging over it all. The weather continued with it’s changeable ways with sun, cloud, rain, sun, cloud, rain. If it’s sunny it’s about to rain. If it’s raining it’s about to be sunny!

The next stop was at Cahirsiveen where we turned away over the inlet to see two stone forts called Leacanabuaile and Cahergal. The first was really interesting with the stone ring wall mostly intact and the outlines of the round house and square house still there, as were the tunnels and steps up and down the walls. The date was 9^th or 10^th century. The second one they were not so sure about the date but it looked as if it was something similar although the structure was different. It was presumed that families lived within the walls with their houses and animals protected by them. The walls were up to 5 or 6 metres tall and were in a very good state of repair. They were fantastically constructed.

We stopped at a small cafe in Waterville where Karilyn and Lindsay raved about their lunch of crabmeat and salmon on rye bread with a salad. Waterville looks out over the large Bellinskelligs Bay with a lake in behind. It is a beautiful spot.

From here we wound our way up and over a pass between the bay and open sea where there were spectacular views out over rocky islands inlets and small rock surrounded paddocks. This is one of the most photographed locations in Ireland.

At Castlecove we turned inland on a very narrow road where you had to back up for any oncoming traffic. We visted yet another stone fort calle Staige Stone Fort and it was described as being the best preserved of this type of fort. We didn’t agree. The ones earlier were better. However, the location, once there was amazing as it was like being in a fort with walls surrounded by a natural amphitheatre of a rocky rounded valley.

The last part of the Ring of Kerry did was along the coast to Kenmare where we stopped for a cup of tea and then decided not to go back via the mountains to Killarney but to take a quicker route back to Callan via a road to the N22 then to Mallow, the M8 motorway and another regional road. It was a long day of driving but it was worth staying down in Killarney so that we could do it all at a leisurely pace.

Just as we arrived back, Breda and Shayne arrived for a chat (a long one) and to say goodbye as she was going to be out tomorrow and we would be gone the next morning. She is very chatty and a good deal of fun as is Shayne with his wonderful stories of his plans and day to day life as a kid of 11. I wish I could have recorded it all. I think we’ll likely see them in New Zealand at some time in the future.

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Photos

A scene looing out over the bay from Waterville
The house and the cliffs made a charming picture

The 3rd round fort at Steig
All the round forts we visited were different from each other but with the same purpose - to protect those within it's walls