Ring of Kerry

A few days before our trip home, we went for a long bus ride. Part of this was the Ring of Kerry that we were taken on. The scenery is beautiful, but we had been travelling for six days, with stops at various tourist places. Mind you, we did appreciate seeing what Ireland is like and what their history entailed, but, I think that we were almost at the point of information overload, or scenery overload. I, personally, was definitely at that point as I don’t usually do tours. I usually determine where I want to visit, go there, maybe do a day tour or two, but I usually get to know a little about the place before continuing on. I do have a tendency to take a lot of pictures. Some people think that about a hundred pictures is a lot. I usually take in the neighbourhood of one to two thousand pictures so that I can go home, get rid of the blurry ones, choose the ones that show what I am trying to say when I do any sort of presentation.

Substitute driver so that Austin could have a day off.

Anyway, I don’t remember much about what we were told about the Ring of Kerry. I found that the Wikipedia tells it in a good way and I am finding it hard to paraphrase it. So, here goes:

“The Ring of Kerry (Irish: Mórchuaird Chiarraí) is a 179-km-long circular tourist route in County Kerry, south-western Ireland. Clockwise from Killarney it follows the N71 to Kenmare, then the N70 around the Iveragh Peninsula to Killorglin – passing through Sneem, Waterville,Cahersiveen, and Glenbeigh – before returning to Killarney via the N72.

Popular points include Muckross House (near Killarney), Staigue stone fort and Derrynane House, home of Daniel O'Connell. Just south of Killarney, Ross Castle, Lough Leane, and Ladies View (a panoramic viewpoint), all located within Killarney National Park, are major attractions located along the Ring. A more complete list of major attractions along the Ring of Kerry includes: Gap of Dunloe, Bog Village,Kerry Woollen Mills, Rossbeigh Beach, Cahersiveen Heritage Centre, Derrynane House, Skellig Experience, Staigue Fort, Kenmare Lace,Moll's Gap, Ladies View, Torc Waterfall, Muckross House, The Blue Pool, Ross Castle, Ogham Stones, St Mary’s Cathedral, Muckross Abbey, Franciscan Friary, Kellegy Church, O’Connell Memorial Church, Sneem Church and Cemetery, Skellig Michael, Beehive Cells and the Stone Pillars marking an important grave.^[1]

There is also an established walking path named The Kerry Way, which takes its own route, and a signposted Ring of Kerry cycling path which uses older quieter roads where possible. The Kerry Way roughly follows the scenic driving route of the Ring of Kerry.

There are numerous variations to the route taking in St. Finian's Bay and Valentia Island which the official driving ring misses (the official cycling route takes in Valentia Island). As well as beaches, it also offers the Gap of Dunloe, Bog Village, Derrynane House, the Skellig Experience Valentia Island, Molls Gap, Torc Waterfall, Muckross House, and Ross Castle.

"The Ring" is a popular day trip and numerous bus companies offer circuits during the summer months. As the narrow roads make it difficult for tour coaches to pass, all tour buses run in an anti-clockwise (or counter-clockwise) direction, traveling via Killorglin first. Some recommend that car owners travel in the opposite direction, going first to Kenmare to avoid delays caused by tour buses. Others advise traveling counter-clockwise to avoid having to pass the buses. In 2008 satellite navigation systems were blamed for directing bus drivers in a clockwise direction around the route.”

Ring of Kerry

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_of_Kerry

Here are a couple of pictures that I took at Ladies View.

The Dingle Peninsula

On the southern part of the western coast of Ireland is the Dingle Peninsula which is situated in County Kerry. It has a number of communities and fabulous scenery. There are also golf courses, and other tourist attractions. There is a village there that goes by the name of Dingle and is not far from the beach that we stopped at. The Dingle Peninsula was made famous by the movie “Ryan’s Daughter”.

Dingle has a number of small restaurants, but all of our group seemed to head for one in particular. It is right across from the bus park, and is quite handy to a small shopping district. I also think that the fact that the bus driver recommended this particular restaurant also helped.

We had enough time to have a lunch in a crowded restaurant that was also a favourite with the local people and to wander up the street. The name is Harrington’s Family Restaurant and their fish and chips are enjoyable.

Once we finished our lunch, my brother and I decided to head up the street to see what was there. We stopped into a couple of the shops. One of the shops was an outlet for Blarney Woolen factory. Once I had a look around and saw the prices of the merchandise, I realized that this was not a shop for someone on a relatively tight budget. So, I continued on my way.

Further up the street, I found a shop that seemed to belong to the Murphy family. They were right beside Murphy’s Pub, and had a sign over the door for Murphy’s B&B. I found the type of shop that I was looking for, souvenirs. I was able to get a number of small gifts, filling the bill for all of my seven grandchildren, my mother-in-law, and my sons. I also found something that I was looking for, a bodrhan. They had two sizes of bodrhans, but I chose the bigger one of the two. When I went to pay for my purchases, it turned out that everything was at half price. As this was before the yearly tourist season began, I believe that they were trying to move out last year’s stock before the new stock arrived. That’s alright, I can handle getting things at sale price.

The Dingle Peninsula, as I have said earlier, does have some tourist spots because of the movie, but I would imagine that a good portion of the income of the area is from farming. The fields were already turning green and the farmers were already spending time in the fields.

I think that it would be nice to return to the area to spend a couple of days to relax and to regroup while on a trip. It seems to be a relatively quiet and slow-paced area, something just to calm the frazzled nerves of touring.