The Ring of Kerry and Dingle Peninsula

We drove round the Ring of Kerry and Dingle Peninsula on consecutive days. These peninsulas are just spectacular and resulted in over 250 pictures being taken. Apart from the views the contrast and range of bright colours from the red and yellow flowering hedgerows, blue sea and sky with white clouds, green fields offset by grey roads and stone walls is wonderful. Great light also helps - no smog here! The sign was a one off (although we did see one where the car was replaced by a person) but really applied to most of the roads travelled in these two days.The hedgerows are a mass of Fusia and Monbrecia which would be great garden displays anywhere else.

One of the oldest structures are Beehive huts dating from ancient times to 1200 AD. They are rather like an igloo made of stone. These buildings required quite a bit of skill to build. The stones had to step in progressively the right amount (corbelling) so that they eventually met to allow a capstone to be placed in the centre. The stones also had to be laid sloping down on the outside so as to shed water. They were remarkably draft free.

They also had passages between them which would allow one to hide or escape. (A bit too tight for my liking.)

We also passed a modern day version.

Dingle is a huge natural harbour with a tight entrance. While enroute we heard on the radio that a boat had gone aground and there was going to an attempt to float it off that afternoon with the high tide. Our timing was brilliant and we arrived while the fishing vessel was hard aground and then saw a tug start to pull on her stern.

She swung round and then floated off.

This enabled her to get underway.

She was reportedly a Spanish trawler called Concerto although her flag was Bayonne which is in France.

After some hull checks (and I suspect bill paying) she took off for the South 24 hours later than planned. Although I thought this was quite exciting to be on the spot, apparantly the locals were a bit more laid back as it is not an infrequent occurence! Must be the drink.

At the Eastern point of the Dingle peninsula we had a wonderful walk around the headland. From Helen’s perspective the key issue here was that this was where Ryan’s Daughter was filmed whereas I was more interested in the fact that this is the Western most point of Europe.

Nonetheless here is the school where Robert Mitchem was Principal (it was actually Kippary National School).
And here is today’s Principal.The high point of the walk was An Moinnán Mor (the pamphlet was all in Irish – the “o” in Mor should also have an acute on it but that is beyond the ability of my version of Word). Helen’s high point is a style with instructions on how to climb over!

For those with linguistic skills the walk is called..

It is the most public Western walk in Europe. The views over the cliffs along the whole coast were magic and enhanced further when we saw several pairs of Gannets flying past.

There are quite a number of renovator’s delights along the coast. This one had great views of the Blasket islands. These islands were occupied for over 100 years and in 1839 supported 13 families however all had relocated to the main line by 1953 reportedly as a result of poor fishing.