We were lucky with our weather the last few days in Ireland but today we had a taste of the rain that makes the Emerald isle..Emerald! We woke to grey skies but a pretty view from our room, looking back towards the church.
Just before nine we headed off to “do” the Ring of Kerry, a famous ‘must do’ scenic tourist drive that classically starts in Killarney. It’s famous for it’s gorgeous ocean scenery, ancient stone forts and cute little towns, but also for the trail of big tourist buses that convoy around the narrow roads every day! We stayed in Kenmare to start our ride around the ring in a clockwise direction on the advice of one of my guidebooks. The buses start from Killarney and do it anti-clockwise, and if you time it right you can avoid spending your day trailing along behind a big bus.
Our first stop was Staigue Stone Fort. thought to have been built during the late Iron Age, probably somewhere between 300 and 400 AD, as a defensive stronghold for a local lord or king. The stone work is so impressive! All done without mortar and the walls inside are rock solid and safe to climb on today. The road up was extremely narrow and we were a bit appalled when a camper van squeezed cautiously past us in one of the wider sections, goodness knows how he’d have managed further up!
Near the fort is a pretty little waterfall and wishing pool, with a few hopeful coins glinting on the bottom.
From here we wound our way along winding roads and past some pretty beaches, O’Carroll’s Cove Beach claims to have the only beach Bar in Ireland and the warmest water. This isn’t a great shot, taken through the car window as we whipped past!
It was worth stopping at a couple of outlooks including Coomakesta Pass Lookout . Even though the skies were grey the views were wonderful.
At the little town of Waterville we stopped to take a look at the Charlie Chaplin statue. He and his family stayed here every year for many years at the Butler Arms Hotel, he found the isolation therapeutic and the locals treated him as one of their own.
At this point we met the first of the tour buses coming towards us but we escaped them for a while by taking a sharp left turn and doing the extension of the route out onto the “Skellig Ring”. This is a road that leads right out to the end of the peninsula, so narrow that the big buses can’t do it. We made a stop on the beach at Ballinskelligs castle, another picturesque ruin sitting on a little spit of land that juts out into the bay. Neil gave the drone another go here and I think he got his best footage yet!
Unfortunately after this the weather started to close in, we drove up steep roads into hills clouded in fog and so we decided to skip a couple of the viewpoints I’d planned for us.Not much point paying 4 Euro for the “Best Sea Cliff Views in Kerry” when all you will see is fog!
So we carried on through the drizzle until we reached the large town of Killarney and stopped to take a look at the town and to have a light lunch in a nice little cafe. I found a pretty Christmas decoration in one of the shops to take home as a reminder of Ireland but Neil is still searching for something to add to his magnet collection.
The rain had stopped for us when we drove into Killarney National Park to take a look at Ross castle, large and imposing on the shores of Loughe Leane. There were a number of Jaunting Carts here , little horse-drawn carts, hopefully waiting for keen tourists to take a clip-clop ride through the park. It wasn’t really the weather for a ride so I made friends with the ducks instead.
The drive through the park, along the lake is pretty but the drizzle had returned so I didn’t try to take many pictures. We need to head back that way again tomorrow so hopefully I’ll get some good shots then.
However, we did stop up at the top of the hill at “Lady’s View” , with it’s fine view back down to the lakes of the park. Queen Victoria’s ladies-in-waiting visited here during the royal visit in 1861. They were so taken with the view that it was named after them.
As we walked back to the car I crossed where the Leprechauns do…maybe it will give me the luck of the Irish… or at least better weather tomorrow!
Update: we just returned from dinner at The Coachmans pub ( another recommendation from our hosts) Ate a delicious Beef & Guinness Stew listening to a great duo. Nothing like listening to Trad Irish in an Irish pub!
Music and Irish Stew in Kenmare – click to listen.