Ring of Kerry, Ireland

Thursday,  August 7, 2014   Ring of Kerry, Ireland

                                       The second lower peninsula is the Ring of Kerry.

After breakfast, we headed down N70 to Killorglin. This quaint little village has a crowned goat statute in the city center. They celebrate their summer festival by crowning a wild goat as “king” as well as a little girl as queen. On we journeyed on the Ring of Kerry with views of the Dingle Peninsula, what we had traveled around yesterday. Today we are traveling around the Iveragh Peninsula. We stopped in Glenbeigh to take a little walk seeing a quaint little village with pretty blooming flower pots and an old church sitting in the center of town. 

                                                            Glenbeigh was a pretty little village.

We stopped in King’s Head where we had an endless view of the coast with numerous stones stacked in foot high columns.

                                               Dingle Peninsula in the background.
We spotted a picnic table and decided to have lunch in this scenic little spot. Three motorcycles pulled into the area and we had a nice chat with an Irish family of six who were enjoying a week of cycling the area…mom, dad, two daughters, and two sons. They actually lived in the interior of the country. We swapped motorcycle stories for a while before deciding to motor on to Cahersiveen, the main town on the peninsula.

Cahersiveen was a bustling little waterfront town with lots of tourists, shops, restaurants, and pubs as well as traffic so we motored on to the next little delightful town of Waterville.

 

Loads of mountain views and seascapes were captured on the camera as we strolled the waterfront looking in shops and enjoying the warm sunshine.  From here you could possibly arrange a boat out to the Skellig Islands where a pinnacle of rock rose out of the sea. Monks over a thousand years ago built a towering staircase up the side of this towering rock of 714 feet.  Today thousands of sea birds…sea petrels, PUFFINS, manx, gannets nest and breed on the high cliffs. What is so remarkable about these rocks  today? This week Harrison Ford and other “Star War” actors are gathered  on the Skellig's for a scene in the next chapter of movie.

After soaking up a grand bit of sunshine we continued up the mountainside to stop at the Coomakista Pass .  Striking views of both sides of the peninsula were captured. We continued traveling through another quaint little village, Sneem .

We continued to travel down N71 to the lovely village of Kenmare. Taking a wrong turn took us right down the middle of the unique Irish village of pubs, restaurants and cafes that was bustling with locals who were hustling to go home from work. The town is renowned for its traditional lace. To create work for women and girls during the famine, nuns from the local convent long ago taught this intricate skill that still remains.

We traveled on through a rolling land of pastures of sheep and cows and drove through the famous Moll’s Gap.

 From here we stopped at the lovely Ladies View, named for the delight that it gave the Queen Victoria’s ladies in waiting. It afforded beautiful views of the Upper Lake, smallest of the Three Lakes of Killarney. From here we journeyed through the town of Killarney seeing many of the same sights that we had viewed on Tuesday.

                         Hydrangas were so colorful and at their peak everywhere!

We were happy to see Crestfield, our home in Tralee. Larry and I had literally             “O D-ed” on Irish scenery today. We had a quick dinner and had no problems with capturing some badly needed shut eye. The five hour time change had finally caught up with us.