On Monday, we headed down towards Dingle for our next Bed and Breakfast. Along the way, we saw many castles, scenic views, and even took a ferry across the Dingle Bay.
After checking in for the night in Dingle, we headed out to a scenic loop along the peninsula. There are some extremely old sites out there; churches founded in the 600s, a stone building from 300-400 A.D. (built with no mortar, but it’s still waterproof), etc.. Of course, we had a pretty harrowing drive as well. Where the road wasn’t just one lane shared for both directions alongside a cliff, there was also the fact that (as Dad put it), “If the bushes aren’t scraping your mirror, you’re too far towards the center.”
Tuesday continued our new tradition of tough drives through beautiful scenery. This time, we took mainly side roads from Dingle, through Killarney, and on down to Kinsale.
We stopped at Killarney National Park to see the lake and some of the man-made sights. We took a horse-and-carriage ride two miles into the park to Muckross house, a large manor built in the late 1800s. I’ve seen larger mansions, but this one has two things going for it: first, the architecture is very interesting, with lots of gables and chimneys, and second, the view across the lake to the mountains can’t be beat. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to go inside (other than to the bathroom) because our carriage would only wait about half an hour. So, instead we walked around the house and through the gardens.
After our visit to Killarney Park, we started the drive to Kinsale. We decided to save some time by not driving back through Killarney, and instead taking a small unnamed road that seemed to cut across to N22. Whatever it was, we saw quite a few new, expensive-looking houses. Dad and I determined that this must be where all the rich people who work in Killarney live.
Finally, we made it to Kinsale. In Kinsale, we stayed at another Rick Steves-recommended guest house. In Ireland, a lot of these places have “family rooms” that contain a double bed and two twin beds, so we’ve been getting a lot of these. This time, it was separated into an upstairs and a downstairs with a spiral staircase connecting them. Because the upstairs was on the fourth (top) floor, we had a great view out of the town to the harbor.
June 14, 2007 at 5:08 pm
Killarney! Just like the Christmas song!