Staying on the Iveragh peninsula this week, otherwise known as the Ring of Kerry. It's one of the most beautiful places in Ireland and, because of that fact, is a magnet for every tourist who comes here. We stayed near Killarney on our last visit and having learned our lesson opted to stay on the other side of the peninsula...on Valentia Island, just north of the little village of Port Magee.
We stayed in another remote little cottage in the country, in fact I adjusted our itinerary just so we could stay in this particular place because both the cottage and the area looked so inviting. it certainly hasn't disappointed - been one of the most pleasant weekly stays we've ever experienced.
The view from the front porch looking out across Dingle Bay. Our only neighbors were a small herd of milk cows and some sheep. Several times this week the local dairy farmer next door moved his cows from one pasture to another down the little lane that fronts the cottage, and when he did we had to close our gate to keep the little beasties out of our yard and driveway. One interesting factoid: when Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic in 1927 his first landfall was right here - apparently he flew right across the fields you see in front of us at about 100 ft, waved to the farmer and a couple of guys working in the field below us, cut his engine and shouted down at them asking where he was...he thought he was in Dingle Bay but wanted verification. The boys were so amazed at the sight of his airplane that all they could do was wave back, and after a couple of circles Lindbergh continued on his way to Paris.
Another look at our "front yard".
Just below us down the hill was St. Brendan's Well, where the ancient monk brought Christianity to the locals. He apparently was quite a sailor and navigator too. Local lore has it that one of his voyages took him to the shores of the New World (Newfoundland) about 900 years before Columbus.
The little village of Port Magee was a scenic place to wander around...had a couple of very nice pubs too.
In fact it was so nice that we thought about making an offer on this "fixer-upper" on Main Street, but eventually decided against it.
At the other end of Valentia Island was the village of Knightstown - another picturesque little spot. Had lunch in this cozy little coffee shop one afternoon.
The rhododendrons are in full bloom all over this area. They were introduced a couple of hundred years ago as hedges and have since spread over the surrounding hills - absolutely covering them in some cases. Makes for a very pretty scene on a sunny day.
Same with the Fuschias, which were also introduced as hedges and which now seem to line every country lane in Ireland. Had several warm sunny days recently that has caused them to explode.
Had to drive up to Kerry airport on Wednesday to swap out our little rental car and pick up another - can only rent a vehicle for 28 consecutive days in Ireland and our time was up. Opted to trade up and get a compact instead of the little POS economy car we had been driving and boy - what a difference - feels like I'm driving a Cadillac by comparison. I will say one thing about the first car - it got about 50 mpg and took some of the sting out of the $8.25 per gallon gas prices - but was so tinny that it felt like we were driving without any floorboards. Nice to get rid of it anyway.
On the way home we stopped off at the Gap of Dunloe - one of our all time favorite hiking places and maybe the prettiest little valley in Kerry. It's about 3.5 miles through the gap and all of it it absolutely gorgeous as you can see from the photos below.
Our lunch stop. Just us, the sheep, and about 20 jaunting cars going by on the road just above us.
Another excursion was over to Staigue Fort, one of many ancient ruins in the area and supposedly the best example of an old ring fort in Ireland. Dates from about 400 AD and was built by a local warlord. We opted to walk up to it from the village below.
After a rather warm 6 mile hike up to the fort and back we felt we'd earned a pint, and so drove a few miles up the road to Sneem...another one of the prettiest villages in Ireland and home to Dan Murphy's bar. The poem on the wall outside the entrance was pretty cute, and the bar tender did know how to pour a good pint of the Black Stuff.
On our last day we opted to take a boat ride out to Skellig Michael - an island about 9 miles off shore and home to the ruins of an old monastic settlement dating from around 600 AD. The monks who founded the settlement and toughed it out here for a few hundred years must have REALLY wanted to be isolated, because this place was about as isolated as you can get. After enduring centuries of Viking raids, every kind of privation, and epic winter storms they finally resettled back on the mainland in the village of Ballinskelligs...about 10 miles up the road from us here at Port Magee. The islands seems to float above the sea when viewed from the mainland, and look like an illustration from a child's fairy tale...or maybe a Tolkien novel.
You can just see the beehive huts that mark the settlement on the cliff face above.
Takes 682 steps to claw your way up from the boat landing to the settlement...and no hand rails.
Looking back at "Little Skellig" from the monastic settlement - now home to a colony of about 40,000 nesting pairs of Gannets.
Leaving tomorrow and driving up to Connemara...about 30 miles west of Galway near the town of Clifden. Saturday seems to be bicycle day in Ireland - we constantly see them out and about (in the hundreds) as we're driving on Saturday afternoons. Hoping to get an early start to avoid the worst of the congestion on the narrow roads.
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