The mysterious Slea Head drive...

The morning in Dingle started off with the bestbreakfast we had yet...The Quayside B&B serves Dingle smoked salmon on a bagel, fresh fruit, porridge, yogurt and even Bailey's Irish Cream for your coffee as well as the full Irish breakfast.

 Fortified, we headed out to take the drive out to Slea Head, the most westerly point of land in Europe.

This narrow, winding road takes you along some of the wildest coastline in Ireland and makes you gasp for air at just about every corner...not for the meek driver...there are some spots where there is only room for one small car held on the road by a rock wall which keeps you from tipping over down a 200 foot cliff into the ocean.

On the way there is an incredible museum dedicated to the famine victims who dwelled in these landlord owned cottages in the 1800's, many of whom lived and died in terrible conditions.

This area was one of the hardest hit and many people experienced some of the most horrific suffering, due to the remoteness of the place and one can only imagine how hard life was in the climate along the coast.

It is humbling and well worth a visit.

Oddly enough is the animal park within its rock walls, I suppose to showcase the native breeds of the area.                                                                                                                                                                                  The thatched roofs are amazing and detailed in ways that I didn't know was possible with thatch.

There are 'dummies' inside and out of the cottages, which lends an earie feeling to the place as well as scaring the bejesus out of unsuspecting tourists who come upon them!

Anyway, the drive was incredible with views out to

the jagged Skellings and wicked ocean below. The strange thing was that we were driving along trying

to figure out where the turnoff to Dingle was and thinking we had at least another hours drive back when things started to look familiar and all of a sudden realized we were indeed back in Dingle!

More strange magic on the road in Kerry.

Dingle...as fun as it sounds...

Upon arriving in Dingle we were up for a pint and some lunch and stopped in at a great little seaside pub. On the bay, a pint of Guiness, seafood chowder and the Vicar at the bar....oh Ireland...After lunch we parked in the village and went out in search of a b&b and came across a man and a donkey cart. At first we thought he was a tourist gimmick so I went to have a chat and take a picture or two, but uopn further investigation, learned that he was just a guy living on the road with his donkey, Connagh. Thats what he does...wanders around from town to town, doing odd jobs in exchange for food and pasture..so there you go..."not all who wander are lost" as J.R Tolkien says. We found a beautiful b&b (Quayside B&B) overlooking the harbor and frankly it was one of the nicest places we had stayed yet...the owner was a nice young lad from Dublin (I even picked up the accent!) and his wife who was born and raised there. Decided to have a looke around and found a great repubulican pub just within stumbling distance of  the Quayside which was totally empty but for the da, myself the barkeep and one other regular.The walls were covered in everything IRA. We had a pint, watched the nuns stroll past (REALLY!) and then asked the barkeep about music at night...he said to come back around nine and there would be some good trad music. After some smoked makerel fish and chips we headed back to the pub (O'Flagherty's) and the place was packed! Luckily there were a few seats near the action and the music was great...one fella played about 4 instruments while a woman played a wooden flute. After the set, the instrument guy walked around and collected empty glasses! Turned out he was the owner as well as the entertainment. When the intermission started, we decided to walk about town to see what else we could find . We learned that the meek hardware store during the day becomes the local local at night complete with blinds closed and nails and hammers put aside for pints and shots of whiskey. Ended up in the Dingle pub for some young lads playing trad and a good night had by all.    

Dingle bound...

Along the Ring of Kerry are so many gorgeous views to see and it reminded me of what my brother Dan had to say about Ireland.

He's been there a few times and as a teacher knows bits of info that we mere mortals don't. So I says to him after our trip "...the light in Ireland was so beautiful and the greens really are innumerable.." and he says to me "...well it's not just the magic of the place, it's the geographical location of Ireland..." and for some reason, because of the location of the island , it is the reason painters, poets, musicians and artists of all genres find Ireland such an intriguing place.

 On the way into the village of  Dingle, are many rugged, fertile farmlands pearched on sloping hills with little houses dotting the countryside along with those oh so lovely narrow Irish roads..have I mentioned the narrow roads here???

Anyway, coming into Dingle was such a treat with its light filled harbour, colorful buildings and friendly, welcoming residents. P.S...all those little white dots on the hillside are..you guessed it...sheep...oh that gorgeous Irish wool!

When in Ireland....

Heading out into the Lakes of Killarney we were now experiencing driving the Irish way...

 

The Ring of Kerry is notorious for its VERY narrow, winding roads and high speed limits...when we told one Dubliner that we were renting a car to do The Ring, he said..."thats probably not the best place you want to first drive in Ireland..." oh well...here we were. I decided that I would just pull over if anyone got on my arse and kept to the most comfortable speed I could handle which was about 65kmh in most places. PLUS I wanted to see the incredibly gorgeous scenery along the way...Dad was right there too, pulling out the movie camera at every turn around the bend.
As we tootled along, we saw a sign for Blackwater Bridge so I say, "lets go check that place out." So off the road we went down a seriously narrow country lane where we passed one other car and both of us were in the high grass on both sides to get past each other...after about 10 minutes we finally came upon this incredible, stone bridge over...you guessed it...Blackwater river.


 So we spent a while there enjoying the power of the water flowing through the arched underpass and then saw a sign for The Ring and thought we were going back the same way...oh no...nothing looked familiar but magically (as sometimes happens in Ireland) we ended up on the right road toward the Dingle Penninsula.

On the road in Kerry

The morning after our singalong and a good full Irish breakfast, we headed out to drive the Ring of Kerry. This loop around the Iveragh Peninsula is full of the most incredible scenery of rivers, mountains and the wild west coast of Ireland.
Our first stop was not far out of Killarney. Muckross Abbey was founded in 1448 by the Franciscans and burnt down (surprise, surprise) by Cromwellian forces in 1653.

Luckily most of the Abbey and all of the old tombstones are made of stone so needless to say it still stands today on the shores of the Killarney Lakes.

The walk in is lovely along a wide road with expansive lawns leading into the woods where the abbey stands.

 Once again we were fortunate to be the only ones there for most of the time until a noisy bunch of older teens hit the scene...oh well..we poked around and had a good look at some of the ancient headstones, my favorites being the white lady and the Gabriel angel one with the snail curled up near his horn. I loved how it was overgrown and wild with valerian and ivy.

 Another quiet, meditative place.

New Life

I have taken a break from my Ireland posts because of technical difficulties posting photos so I thought I would just put up a picture of one of my favorite flower vases. It's an old coffee pot the has a slight leak in it so you can't rely on it for hot coffee. I just put a jar in it and voila! A pretty pot for sweet peas, cosmos and lacecap hydrangeas.
Speaking of new life, we have 9 new chicks hatched in the last few days in the hen house and who can resist a baby photo op!

The Ring

So after a relaxing train ride back from Belfast through farmlands and along the coast we are back in Dublin before heading out for our next adventure. Part of this adventure is the renting of a car and finally trying to be brave enough to master the Irish roadways….This is not for the faint of heart or the slow driver. Irish roads are winding, narrow, rock wall lined and speed limits are very high compared to similar roads here. A quaint two lane country byway will have a speed limit of 80 kmh plus the added fact that you are driving a right hand drive car on the left hand side of the road.


We decided that our first Irish driving experience would NOT be renting a car from the Dublin airport and trying to find our way to Killarney from there….no, we took the safer way by hopping a train to Cork (a much smaller city) and renting one from the airport there. We picked up our car…smallest one on the lot…and headed out…The right hand drive thing was fine since I own a Delica van with right hand drive. The bizarre part was turning on to the road way and everything that had been habit was now in reverse and I actually had to THINK about it..thank god dad was there to confirm which lane I had to be in! The other thing is wrapping your head around those oh so wonderful roundabouts! Not too many traffic lights…just lots of roundabouts..Of course we got lost in the first one but brilliantly stayed on the proper side of the road…As my daughter says..”you haven’t lived until you go the wrong way in a roundabout”.  So we arrived in Killarney in one piece and fell in love with this pretty Irish village.

It is definitely a tourist town but still holds on to its qauintness and has that wonderful small town feel about it. It is in County Kerry…which is my namesake and the area is commonly referred to as “The Kingdom of Kerry”….gotta love that! The Kingdom is proud of its tradition of independence and disregard for Dublin rule. Everywhere are signs with my name on it which I thought was really cool since its not a common name here .
 
We decided to have dinner in O’Donahues…which looked like a nice Irish place on the outside but when we walked in it was kind of glitzy and was owned and run by 3 Chinese guys…anyway the food was good and the meals are huge! Actually every place we ate in Ireland was excellent and you were given more food than you could eat. After dinner and a rest at the b&b, we wanted to go out and see some music…did a few pub hops …

                 

…and ended up being entertained for hours by this guy..didn’t catch his name…but he could sing! And had everyone singing along too…the great thing about the Irish is no matter how young, old or cool you think you are, you will find everyone joining in on a good singalong…so much fun…after singer guy a young group of lads came on with the traditional instruments and sang some good Irish tunes…