Blue is Beautiful, Our Ireland and Scotland Journey, Part 4

Day 5

We had a great breakfast to start the day.  Our hostess at the B&B firmly believes in having choices and she does that in spades.  She sets out a buffet of cereals, breads, yogurts, juices, cheeses, nuts, granola, just about anything you can imagine.  And then she comes by and offers to cook whatever you want.  Bacon?  Have I told about Irish bacon?  It's actually more like Canadian bacon, large slabs of thinly slided ham that is fried.  Very good.

The day started overcast with light rain.  It was supposed to clear out between 12:00 and 13:00 so we "slow rolled" the morning, not wanting to get on the scenic coast too early and miss the views.

First we went to Ross Castle down the road.  Our B&B is located on Ross Rd which leads to the castle so it's an easy way to start the day.  We wanted to scope it out and see if we should return later in the day.

Simple answer.  Yes.

We only spent about 15 minutes here and then we headed towards the Dingle Peninsula.  While quickly leaving the site, I was already making plans in my head for taking pictures of the castle later in the day.  

We had two primary choices for the day - the Dingle Peninsula or the Ring of Kerry.  We elected to go with the Dingle Peninsula primarily because we wanted to see more of the country away from tourists.  In fact, our lovely cook for breakfast recommended the Ring of Kerry over Dingle because the Dingle Peninsula drive "made her nervous".  Of course that statement made Kim nervous, not to mention my driving and the narrow roads on top of that!

Not to be deterred, off we went.  It's a little over an hour to Dingle so we took our time.  I really didn't want to leave Dingle with overcast skies and rain still falling.  There WAS supposed to be good shopping in Dingle so I knew that could kill some time with no effort at all on Kim's part, lol.

Before we got to Dingle, however, we stopped in Inch at their beach, the first beach we had seen here.  They call them a strand.

Inch Strand

Inch Strand is 5 km long and is a flat, wide-open beach.  Tons of room and light brown sand.  It is hard-packed and locals drive down the beach similar to Daytona Beach, FL.  I took a quick look at it and we discussed stopping again on the way back later in the day as the weather was foul.

 We shortly arrived in Dingle and we discovered they were having their annual Dingle Food Festival.  It's a huge, big, hairy deal.  Heavy traffic and crowds.  No parking.  We rolled through the main parking lot, (sorry they're called car parks here) and it was completely full.  We got to the outskirts of town and parked at a gas station for about 30 minutes to let the rain clear out.

Fortunately it did.  The rain stopped.  There were still some lingering clouds through much of the afternoon but in general the weather was really great.

Leaving Dingle we continued on what is called the Slea Head Drive.  Fantastic views.  Cliffs similar to the Oregon coast.  Green fields criss-crossed with rock walls and dotted with sheep and cattle.

There were a few very narrow places (as in one lane and a slight pucker factor) but in general not as bad as expected.  I guess we’ve done some bad roads because today was easy.  Mt. Washington comes to mind.  That was a hairy drive.

 We stopped at some beehive huts like the ones seen in The Last Jedi which was filmed on a nearby island.  Buildings made entirely of stone,

Beehive huts & walls

sloped for drainage and support.  We think of ancient people as perhaps being less intelligent than us but they did amazing things with just a few natural resources.

I will let the Dingle Peninsula pictures speak for themselves.

Ross Castle, late afternoon

We drove back to Killarney to see Ross Castle.  We arrived around 4:45 but still missed the last tour that started at 5:00.  I think it was a tour bus anyway that was pre-booked.  Only guided tours are given so we could only admire the exterior of the building.

After that minor disappointment I talked Kim into driving partway (ok I drove, she rode) on the Ring of Kerry to the Ladies View in Killarney National Park, named for Queen Victoria's ladies-in-waiting who enjoyed the view. It was a great view down on the lakes of Killarney National Park.

Ladies View

Actually I think the drive on this road scared Kim more than the Dingle Peninsula.  It was very narrow and there were still tour buses on the road that we met a few times.  Not good.

We came back to town for supper.  Ended up grabbing food in a small grocery store and eating in our room because we were both worn out and didn't want to walk to a restaurant.

However I had enough energy left to drive back to Ross Castle for night photography.  Twice actually.  The first time I left part of my tripod in a suitcase.

Good times.  No one was around so it was really peaceful.  Windy though, but worth it.

Ross Castle at night

So that's why I'm behind on the blog again.  A day late.  I hope you enjoy the photos.  Got some good ones today also but you'll just have to wait.

Until tomorrow.

Randy