Today was another travel day, so again, not many pictures. I got a nice send-off from Toni and Danny at Larkinley Lodge – seriously, guys, that is THE place to stay in Killarney. Wonderful rooms, great food, and the warmest, friendliest, most helpful hosts you could wish for. Danny even drove me to the train station this morning.
The train ride was suitably boring; the only thing of interest was, after scrambling to get my ticket and onto the connecting train in Dublin, there was a problem with that train’s signals1 and we all had to troop off that train and over to another train, which meant we were delayed about twenty or thirty minutes.
But I made it to Kilkenny and, after one2 wrong turn, I managed to find Butler House, where I’m staying.
The room is huge. Seriously. You could probably fit my living room, dining room, kitchen, and one bedroom in it.Here’s the other angle on that picture of the room. What you can’t see on the right hand side is the big wardrobe and the second bed. Seriously. Huge. And very nice.
After dropping my stuff off, I took the advice of Helen, the lady who checked me in, and wandered up to Kyteler’s Inn for dinner, where they had a music session going.
I am indeed spending more time in pubs this trip, and also hearing more traditional music. These are connected, and that’s a good thing.
There’s a whole story behind Kyteler’s Inn, but I don’t want to ruin it for folks. I’m sure I’ll get a more detailed3 version of the tale on my walking tour tomorrow, and I’ll be sure to share it with you.
Tonight, I’m going to be taking the rest of the evening easy.
Or something. I don’t know. It coulda been signals. [↩]
Well, the sunburn on the arms is not fun, but still not enough to ruin my mood. I got up early today, gave some laundry to Toni here at the B&B1, and went for a nice walk before my tour.
This is the church at the centre of town – the town being Killarney.There are some nice statues in the Killarney town parks, including one of Johnny O’Leary, a renowned accordion player……and of Jesus.
Then I made my way down to the Deros offices to get on my tour of the Dingle Peninsula.
Boo Boo guards the door at the Deros offices. She’s a very nice old dog.
There were apparently more people signed up for the tour than expected, so I wound up on the second bus, leaving about a half-hour later. It was a small bus, with only about a dozen of us, so we got a lot of personal attention, and a more flexible, looser structure to the tour.
Inch Beach is a peninsular beach made by ocean drift, stretching almost all the way across Dingle Bay from the Dingle Peninsula to the Iveragh Peninsula.It’s a pretty impressive stretch of beach, especially with the low tide the way it was today.There’s a neat little cafe at the beach, with the mountains of the Dingle Peninsual rising behind it.On up the coastal road is a little spot called Fahan. It’s got great views of the Dingle Bay cliffs.The cliffs are pretty dramatic.Up the hill a ways from Fahan is a little neolithic farmstead, with stone fences and a surviving beehive hut.The beehive hut is still standing. Some of the other structures are undergoing some restoration.The rough coastline here is near the Blasket Islands.The Blasket Islands are, by some measures, the westernmost part of Europe. They had folks living on them up until 1953 when the last of them left.They are beautiful, rocky, remote islands.The land on the Dingle coast opposite the Blaskets is still pretty rugged.Then it was back down to Dingle town, a very pretty little coastal town.Dingle is a working harbour, mainly with fishing boats.One of the things Dingle is famous for is Fungie the Dolphin, who has lived near the harbour mouth since 1983, and is known to come in and play with swimmers and follow the boats around.There’s actually a store called The Dolphin Shop on the high street, dedicated to Fungie memorabilia.
And then it was back to Killarney, and not being on time to pick up my laundry.
This is my last night in Killarney, and my last night at Larkinley Lodge. Larkinley is a great B&B – Toni and Danny are great hosts, the room is beautiful and comfortable and quiet, and the bed is very comfortable.
But I’m looking forward to moving on to Kilkenny.
Laundry service here is Toni taking the laundry to the laundrette, and me picking it up at the end of the day. Unfortunately, my tour got back late, and the laundrette was closed. I’ll have to pick it up tomorrow morning before I get on the train. [↩]
It was beautiful weather today – sunny, just a few puffy clouds, a bit of a breeze. Seeing as I was spending most of the day outside, this was wonderful. Except, of course, that I forgot to put on any sunscreen. Yep, I got some pretty good sunburn on my arms and a bit on my face.
I was up fairly early because I needed to go down to the Deros Tours to find out which tour I was on today – I had booked both the Gap of Dunloe tour and the Dingle Peninsula tour, but I had lost the e-mail that told me which day was which. So, I had to go down early and find out which tour I was taking.
And then I walked around the High Street for a while, waiting for the tour to start.
The town centre of Killarney is very pretty. Killarney is pretty focused on tourism, and everyone is very friendly.
The time came, and we got on the bus, and went up to Aghadoe to take a look at where we’re going today.
These are the lakes we’re going to be boating on later.The lakes are very beautiful from above.There’s no wonder that Killarney area is a popular tourist destination.
Then we were on to Kate Kearney’s Cottage.
This is the start of the trail up through the Gap of Dunloe. There are a number of men with horses and traps there to drive you through the gap if you don’t want to walk the seven miles through the mountains.So we started up the gap, me and two charming Irish ladies, and the driver.The steep walls lining the gap are studded with limestone outcroppings, looking both forbidding and picturesque.The first and deepest of the lakes in the gap, this is Black Lake.The road crosses and recrosses the chain of tiny lakes and rivers on similar rustic bridges as it switchbacks up the gap.Looking back down the Gap of Dunloe towards Kate Kearney’s Cottage.The last lake in the gap is Serpent Lake, said to the be the place where St. Patrick eliminated the last snake in Ireland.At the top of the gap, looking down the other side into Black Valley. One of the most remote places in Ireland, with about thirty families living there. They just got electricity there in 1976.The road down is a little less steep and far greener than the road up.And the horses get a well-deserved rest at the end of the trail.The bridge to Brandon’s Cottage, where we got to have lunch and board the boats.This tower is the original Lord Brandon’s Cottage. It’s not open to the public, because it’s not safe. But it is cool.This is just an awesome tree.
I don’t have an interesting picture of the current Lord Brandon’s Cottage, simply because it’s not that interesting a building. It’s a little cafeteria, with a lot of picnic tables.
Down at the boats, pulling away from the docks at Lord Brandon’s Cottage.The boats pass through three different lakes and a river as you circle Purple Mountain.
This is Purple Mountain. On our trip, we brought along someone who lives in the valley, who wanted a lift to check on some sheep. Apparently, his family owns a couple thousand scattered over this mountainside.The scenery is just gorgeous.The only channel out of the lake is through Coleman’s Eye, a gap in the rocks about twelve feet wide.The river winds around the mountain.We saw a couple of swans, a couple of eagles, and a few herons along the way. According to the boatman, there would usually be more birds and other wildlife, but several years ago, someone in Waterville imported a bunch of minks to farm. When they inevitably escaped, they started breeding in the Kerry Mountains, and are a real problem for wildlife and sheep.Looking back as we enter the next lake.This bridge can apparently sometimes be underwater if the lakes rise too high, as they can if the rain is high.This bridge, leading into the big lake, doesn’t get covered by water.Inisfallen is an island in the big lake that has the remains of an abbey/university from the sixth century on it. It was, apparently, one of the great centres for learning in Ireland.We dock at Ross Castle, about a mile from the town of Killarney.Ross Castle is a 14th century castle. Ross is the Irish word for promontory, so this is the castle on the promontory.
Then it was back on the bus and back to Killarney. I wandered around for a bit, had a nice dinner at Quinlan’s – a fish place that catches its own fish. I had the special, which was John Dory with chips and salad – I’d never had John Dory, or even heard it, but it was tasty.
Walking back to the B&B, I grabbed a homemade honeycomb caramel ice cream cone. I had a lot of pictures to process at the B&B, many of which were not very good, as taking pictures in the back of a bouncing horse trap is not conducive to getting unblurred pictures.
Now, bedtime. Tomorrow, the tour of the Dingle Peninsula.
Today was a travel day. I was up early to catch the bus to Galway, and then the train to Dublin, another train to Mallow, a third train to Killarney, then a cab to Larkinley Lodge. Now, I found out that Larkinley Lodge was within easy walking distance, but my iPhone had drained its battery while I was reading on the bus and trains, and couldn’t use the GPS to find the place. Now I know how to walk from the Lodge to the station, so that’s fine.
But really what that means is that I don’t have a lot of pictures today. Here are a few little things.
I just realized that I haven’t shown you the inside of McGann’s Pub, except for the musicians. Here’s the actual pub part.This is Larkinley Lodge. Very nice folks here, and a very nice room. Good recommendations for dinner.The room is lovely. The B&B is new-built, and a nice mix of modern and traditional feel to it.
I went for a nice walk around Killarney, found the pub – The Laurels – that they recommended at the B&B, and also found the place to meet for my tour tomorrow.
