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11th July - County Kerry

Time to move on again, this time into County Kerry and the town of Dingle, famed for its associations with the film Ryan's Daughter and Fungi the dolphin. But there was a lot to see on the way and we were spoiled for choice. We drove through Bantry but it was too soon for a stop and we had nearly 4 hours driving ahead - only 100 miles or so but very slow roads. Since the weather remained dry, we decided to visit Garinish Island (Ilnacullin) from Glengarriff on the edge of the Beara Peninsula. The 37 acre island has been made into a beautiful garden in the early 20th century, enjoying a micro-climate enabling many plants to thrive that would not normally be found in this part of the world. After a short wait and an even shorter ferry crossing during which we saw a number of basking seals, we arrived at this lovely place and spent over 90 minutes walking around. Below are some pictures taken of the gardens - the Italian garden is the most formal, and probably the most stunning part of the garden. Some of the views made it seem like we were in alpine scenery which was quite unexpected. The first ever Martello tower was built on the island in 1805 when it was fortified against Napoleon. It's still there but you can't go inside. 

Once back on the mainland we joined part of the famous Ring of Kerry, an extremely scenic route, but didn't have time to detour right round. It was very twisty and hilly and we had a brief stop at Moll's Gap, after which we moved on to Killarney. Having spent so long on the island, we didn't stop but continued on to the Dingle Peninsula, stopping at Inch Beach for a walk along the lovely sands, shivering in the wind whilst bravely eating ice creams. The David Lean film Ryan's Daughter was filmed on the peninsula and this is the long stretch of beach featured. Sadly, people saw fit to drive their cars all over it which seemed a shame. There were people swimming and surfing, despite the cold. Refreshed by all that sea air, we continued on to our B&B in Dingle itself.  We stayed at Greenmount House, a very smart guesthouse/small hotel. This was extremely comfortable and situated just on the edge of town, within easy walking distance of everywhere. This picture shows the view from our room, overlooking the harbour.

In the evening we walked into town, stopping off at one of the 50 pubs for a quick drink. Irish pubs tend to be dark and rarely with windows to the outside, so you never know quite what you'll get until you go in. We found ourselves seated in the musicians corner - but they weren't due until about 9.30 so no problem there. Then we went across the road for dinner at The Old Smokehouse - food excellent, wine not so good. Nothing wrong with it, it just tasted very 'feeble' for a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. We stopped after for another drink but found the musicians wouldn't be there until at least 9.45 - way past our bedtime!  Must be all the sea air, we were always worn out by 9pm.

12th July - County Kerry

We had a wonderful breakfast - Greenmount has won several breakfast awards, deservedly so. There were lots of different fruits, cereals, egg custards, bread & butter pudding, cakes, scones, as well as all the usual and not so usual hot offerings. Our first stop was at the Holden leather factory/shop, tucked away in the middle of nowhere. If you like the smell of leather, you'd love this place. Unfortunately the prices were way out of our league but the goods were really beautiful. We planned to do the Slea Head driving tour, taking in many of the sights on the peninsula west of Dingle town and in fact it took us all day. Much of the route is coastal, very narrow and hampered by coaches, one of which we were stuck behind for a long time. Our first stop was at one of the hundreds of sites of so-called 'beehive huts', or clochans. It's thought that these date back from ancient times to the 12th century. They're built from stones with no mortar - amazing how well they've survived over the centuries. 

Our next stop was Slea Head, which was probably our favourite place of the whole holiday. There are views across to the Blasket Islands which are no longer inhabited but can be visited on day trips. The beach is wonderful, backed by slate cliffs - far more to my taste than Inch, and also used in Ryan's Daughter. It was very windy but we did see the sun, albeit just for a few moments!

We also visited the Louis Mulcahy Pottery at Clogher Head which was a fantastic place. They make and sell the most incredible range of pottery from cups to wash basins to lamps to enormous urns. The choice was overwhelming but we settled on a small vase and a gift of a plant pot for my mum's birthday. 

Our next visit was the Gallarus Oratory, a 1200 year old early 'church'. Similar to the beehive huts, this resembles an upturned boat and has remained watertight all this time. From here we could see the remains of Gallarus Castle and hoped we could walk right to it. This was an opportunity to photograph the fuchsias that grow wild in the hedgerows.  We were surprised to find the castle had been recently restored and had been open to the public for just 4 weeks, and were given a (free) tour. 

That was about as much as we could fit into the day, so went back to Dingle for dinner, which we ate at Novecento. We were early as we had a theatre visit later and so had their 'early bird' menu which was excellent. The theatre visit was to see Noel Coward's Blythe Spirit performed in a local hall by the Beehive Theatre, an amateur group. There were only about 30 people there - the play was being performed most Saturdays during the holiday season - but it was a very small room. It was a really entertaining play, extremely well acted and everyone enjoyed it enormously. It was almost 11pm when it finished but we hadn't fallen asleep at all, which is testament to how good it was. 

13th July - County Kerry to County Limerick (just!)

We were first in for breakfast which was again delicious, so had chance to chat with the owner who told us that 95% of his customers are Americans and not early risers. It was a shame to leave here - but at least our next stop was only 50 miles away so we were able to spend the morning in Dingle town. We booked a boat trip to see Fungi the famous dolphin, for 11.30 and so had time to visit the Oceanworld aquarium first, which was most enjoyable. The wait for the boat was very entertaining with an impromptu song & dance act by 2 young lads who had the foresight to bring along a shoebox for donations! In fact they did very well out of it.  The trip was good but Fungi was feeling a little shy and we didn't see much of him. I've got a few photos of him just breaking the water but no leaping around, unfortunately, so check out this site to see some good photos of him. The water was quite rough so it was difficult to keep still while taking photos - and you had to be very quick to anticipate where he would next surface. 

We then left Dingle via the Conor Pass which is a very dramatic road, but the weather was dull again, thus the photos are not too good. We drove via Tralee, the capital of Kerry, but didn't stop, carrying on to Castleisland to visit Crag Cave, a recently discovered cave full of stalactites and stalagmites. We've visited a n umber of such places and confess that this was a big disappointment, very possibly because the guide was very poor and the guide can make or break the experience. It wasn't far from there to Abbeyfeale, just over the border in County Limerick, where we were to spend one night. We investigated the town but found it very uninteresting, appearing to be stuck in a time-warp and were pushed to find somewhere suitable for dinner. We made our way to our B&B, Fitzgerald's Farmhouse, which is also an equestrian centre. Fortunately it was out of town and was very comfortable - and was the first place to have bath sheets rather than the smaller variety. There was a lot of traffic when we went out for dinner, due to a local football derby between the counties of Limerick and Kerry - and Limerick had lost, leaving lots of people with sorrows to drown. We managed to park opposite a restaurant we hadn't spotted before - Whyte's - and it's certainly a cut above the rest in town. We had a superb meal there, this picture being of one of our colourful starters.