Dingle Peninsula, Ireland: Final Post of our North Sea Encirclement

The weather today was pretty wild.  We enjoyed sideways rain mostly until about two in the afternoon.  That was OK with us since this is the final day of the trip other than the two-day effort to return home.  So we had already planned on using the day to do a last load of laundry, prepare our bags for the trip home and to just sit, relax, and reminisce.  As this was a long trip, we have lots of reminiscing available.

Tomorrow we drive to Dublin, which will take about 5 hours.  On Tuesday we travel to London via Aerlingus, then from London to New York (JFK) via Virgin Atlantic and from New York to Columbus via United.  From the airport we will Uber to where we parked our car, and then drive home, where for the first time in about three months we will sleep in our own beds.  

It has been an outstanding trip full of history, interesting people and astonishing scenery but now it will be nice to be home again.

One last sunset out the window of our AirBnB

MJ and a treat that we bought her

And, a last goodbye to our AirBnB co-host, M.J.

Dingle Peninsula, Ireland; Ring of Kerry Daytrip

 We drove from our cottage on the tip of the Dingle Peninsula south to the Iveragh Peninsula.  A series of roads circle this peninsula and collectively they are known as the ring of Kerry.  Ireland promotes this "ring" heavily as a tourist destination.  This mountainous outcropping off Ireland's western coast is brimming with lakes and breathtaking scenery.  There are several quaint (made especially so for us tourists) towns and the highest peak in Ireland.  Really the ring is deserving of two days, however, I would not swap a day on the Dingle peninsula for two days on the Ring of Kerry.  The Ring has a reputation to be crowded with tourists and bus tourists, however, driving it as late in the season as this we ran into no crowds.  The day was sunny and the colors were magnificent...it was the perfect way to enjoy this corner of Ireland.

Driving the Ring in one day we certainly didn't explore it as thoroughly as we did Dingle Peninsula but we did enjoy the views and take in a few historical sights.  

Iveragh Peninsula has several large beaches, incomprehensibly, there were swimmers.

  The temperature did not reach 60^oF today.

There was a wild colonial boy

Jack Duggan was his name

He was born and raised in Ireland

In a place called Castlemaine

He was his father's only son, his mother's pride and joy

And dearly did his parents love the wild colonial boy

At the early age of sixteen years, he left his native home

And to Australia's sunny shores he was inclined to roam

He robbed the rich, he helped the poor

he shot James McAvoy

A terror to Australia was the wild colonial boy

One morning on the prairie as Jack he rode along

A listening to the mockingbird

a singing a cheerful song

Out stepped a band of troopers

Kelly, Davis and Fitzroy

They all set out to capture him, the wild colonial boy

"Surrender now Jack Duggan for you see we're three to one

Surrender in the Queen's high name for you're a plundering son"

Jack pulled two pislols from his belt and he proudly waived them high

"I'll fight, but not surrender" said the wild colonial boy

He fired a shot at Kelly, which brought him to the ground

And turning 'round to Davis, he received a fatal wound

A bullet pierced his proud heart from the pistol of Fitzroy 
And that was how they captured him, the wild colonial boy

In every small town there is a pub named Murphy's

Ireland is littered with ancient ring forts.  Fittingly, Kerry has three of the best examples.  We visited Staigue Fort, thought to be the most impressive.  It is well off the "traffic ring" and beyond the reach of tour buses.  (So far).  This defensive fort was built sometime between 500BC and 300AD and reflects the wealth that had come to this area because of its copper mines.

A stone ring in a farmer's field.  There seems to be nothing 

the ancient celts liked to do more than stand huge, flat stones on their ends

Cliffs on the tip of Iveragh Peninsula

Dingle Peninsula, Ireland

 Still waking up enjoying our AirBnB on the tip of the Dingle Peninsula.  What a good (lucky) choice we made.  Two "Star Wars" movies had scenes filmed on the tip of the peninsula, Episode VII, The Force Awakens, and Episode VIII, The Last Jedi.  Today we started at Dunmore Head, which also claims to be the westernmost point in Europe.  This is the epicenter for the Star Wars movie tourist.  I was worried that I'd see tourists dressed like stormtroopers and Jedi Knights.  Instead just beautiful, powerful, dramatic scenery; certainly the reason this site was chosen by the filmmakers.  we hiked down to the beach and then I hiked up to the summit of Dunmore Head.  The views from the bottom and the top were equally breathtaking.

Dunmore Head, pointing the way to Great Blasket Island

Following the road that clings to the edge of the peninsula we stopped at Clogher Head.  This site is not as accessible as was Dunmore Head.  It was a about a 20 minute hike to the summit over soggy, boggy ground and loose rocks, but the view was worth it.  From the top I could have been taking pictures for Ireland's travel posters.  It was worth the hike even though I was caught in a serious downpour of rain on the way back down.

Skellig Micheal appearing from the mists

The three sisters

It is easy to see why the Irish Tourist board calls this island the "Sleeping Giant".  The locals call it "Dead Man in the Water".

View of the Atlantic from the summit of Clogher Head

Further inland we visited the ruins of Reasc  Monastery.  All that remains is the footprint of the monastery that once stood here.  The monastery was started in the sixth century and occupied until the twelfth.  It was composed of a number of beehive houses (the round foundations) an oratory (church) and the buildings to support what would have been the infrastructure of the day.

A Maltese styled cross (Christian) carved over a pre-existing Celtic (pagan) scrollwork

From the Reasc Monastery we drove to the Gallarus Oratory.  This is not a reconstructed site. Somehow this Oratory has stood for 1,300 years.  I stood there and imagined the hands of the monks painstakingly placing each stone to make their church.  Could they have dreamt that in 2022 we could still admire their work?

Galllarus Oratory

Finally we stopped by two interesting church ruins, almost side by side.  The oldest dating from the Norman takeover after 1066.  

The newer church, also a ruins, dates from the 12th century and is surrounded by one of the spookiest cemeteries I can imagine.  The cemetery has resin noticeably, possibly because of all the displaced soil from layer upon layer of the dead.  Some crypts have their lids jarred aside as if the occupant was wanting a little fresh air.  Others had huge boulders placed on top of them, I think to keep who was in there, in there.  The church itself was interesting with a romanesque arch and a weathered stone cross.  

Note the stone leaning against the crypt.  Anything to hold these guys in.

Note the hole in the stone pillar in the foreground.  For hundreds of years if you wanted to construct a deal with someone both parties would show up at this stone, touch thumbs through the hole and swear to the deal.  Zip!  Zop!  Zap!  The deal is done, so who needs a lawyer when you have a thumb?

This castle ruins is about a three minute drive from where we are staying, 

just out in a sheep pasture.

Dingle Peninsula, Ireland

Our AirBnB host had provided us with a box of eggs, Irish bacon, butter and a loaf of whole grain bread.  I made a dash into the town of Ventry, about 12 minutes away, for some raspberry jam, and we were set for breakfast.  I have been enjoying our big hotel "Full Irish Breakfasts", and this breakfast is more than I have back in Lancaster, but still it was good to start slowing down on the sausages and black and white puddings.  

Sandy and I are in agreement that of the places we have seen in Ireland, Dingle stands out as the prettiest part of Ireland.  Our goal was to tour around the coastline of the Dingle peninsula.  Since we have several days here we were in no hurry and spent plenty of time at sites that we found interesting.  The first place we found was the little berg on a corner that only had a pub a grocery and a church...(as Rick Steves says, the three G's...God, groceries and Guinness) Honestly, in Ireland, a town need nothing more.  Paddy O'Shea was a household name in Ireland.  He was on eight, all Ireland champion Gaelic Football (like rugby but clearly different) teams for Kerry, as a player for 18 years.  He then trained the Kerry team for many years after that.  But, what has made his fans truly cherish him most, is that he opened a pub.

Paddy O'Shea statue in front of his pub

The church

Dunbeg Fort is a promontory fort.  It is small but impressive.  Built on a sheer cliffs with land facing defenses that at one time stretched completely across the promontory making it a particularly defensive position.  The site has been occupied on and off since 500BC, however, the stone work of the fort seems to date from 700AD

This is what the fort looked like before a major storm in 2014

The fort today

During the great famine, families eventually abandoned their homes with many ending up in the United States.  We visited a home that had been left mostly undisturbed since the day a famine family walked out.

Goat followed Sandy inside the house

Ireland is full of sheep and to manage those sheep they have sheep dogs.  Sandy and I enjoyed a sheepdog presentation on the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.  These dogs seemed to love what they were doing and they were good at it.  They also liked the attention of the spectators.  

Cashel Murphy is a conglomerate of five beehive huts.  This is  an ancient Celtic and pre- Celtic settlement, and is one of the best examples of a stone settlement in the country, where five families lived ,and where the Druids performed rituals.It also has an underground souterrain, a tunnel which leads to an underground building, where they stored food and grain, and also hid from enemies.

Our final destination today was Slea Head.  It is marked by a serious crucifix.  This is the exact westernmost point in Europe.  

The view towards Boston (the next parish over) from Slea Head

Of course, there were some beautiful vistas and other wondrous sights along the way.

Note the Beehive house in the foreground