Blogs from Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland, Europe - page 9

We skirted the town of Limerick to arrive in Adare, a village known for its prize-winning thatched cottages. Then onto the Dingle Peninsula with some spectacular scenery as the sun appeared for the afternoon. Around to Slea Head and views of the Atlantic. Also saw some of the beaches used in the movie "Ryan's Daughter".... read more

After a little mishap in my travel plans to Scotland, on my birthday, Abby, Liz and I headed to the national park for the weekend. We stayed in a decent little hostel in Kilarney and that night the girls took me out to dinner. It was very good and I'm glad they treated me to it. After some dinner and rummy, we hit the sack. The next morning we took the ring of Kerry bus tour. It was a gorgeous tour and much of it weaved in and out of the national park. The rain that day made it hard to see too much for the second half of the day, which was disappointing, but it was nice anyways. Afterwords we had a few pints at a pub and watched Ireland play England in 6 nations ... read more

James had another day off, another trip. We went west again but this time to Kerry, and went to Killarney National Park. We rented bikes for the day, there are lots of trails to ride around on. First we went to Ross Castle, part of the trail was completely flooded but we managed to find an alternate route. We went on to Muckross Abbey which is a 15th century abbey. Then on to Muckross House, Queen Victoria stayed there. It was nice, lots of deer heads on the walls. We finally saw some red deer on our way to Muckross, and since it is the rut the stags were really bellowing, not the most charming sound. There were some fawns. There are also lots of Kerry Cattle in the park which are an ancient breed. We ... read more

Our taxi driver, Charlie O'Leary, gave us some information about St. Mary's Cathedral in Killarney as we drove by. He told us that 600 children were buried on church grounds who were victims of the great famine. St. Mary's operated as a famine relief center. A family immigrating to Ireland to make a new start soon lost their child to the great famine of 1840's. The father planted an American Redwood tree that still stands today to honor his child.... read more

(by Terrie) The County Kerry scenery was gorgeous. Lush greens fields, deciduous trees in autumn splendor, running rivers and sheep painted brightly in lieu of branding. Our taxi driver, Gene O'Sullivan, said he was the personal driver for Maureen 0'Hara who lives in Glengarriff. Gene said he didn't learn to speak English until later in childhood due to Gaelic being the primary language spoken in his home. He spoke some Gaelic to us, it was neat. He told us a few interesting things such as; the druids land was in the South & West of Ireland, in Catholic cemeteries all headstones face east except the priests who faces west. Also, common folks are transported feet first, but the priests are transported head first, the Irish word for Faery is Pooka, the word "Kil" as prefaced ... read more