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.