The drive was everything we thought. Spectacular scenery, rolling hills, narrow lane – roads lined with either trees or stone fences. It was gorgeous.
We passed several small towns making a few stops – one for a coffee but sadly weren’t up to a Guinness at the beach bar. There was a beach with sand and a camping area and a sign encouraging one to stop for a drink at “Irelands only beach side bar”. We had a laugh at that one!
We continued on and at Portmagee crossed over the bridge to Valentia. We made a stop for lunch at Knight’s Town.. It was obviously a summer holiday spot with some very English sounding people there for boating and that afternoon there was to be a rowing carnival. Everyone was rugged up and it didn’t feel like summer. The locals were all complaining about the rain! We drove along the island toward the ferry back to the mainland.
We drove back along the Ring after using the car ferry to get back to the mainland. Passed through a town with horses and cows for sale and I had to resist – as I saw one very cute cow!
We were going to take a short cut across the ring but got a little lost (no signs and very confusing) Ended up visiting a car museum with a very interesting Irish gentleman named John showing us his cars . There in his big shed he had around 35cars, motor bikes and even a jeep. Steve had a ball talking to him and he was so sweet .
We arrived back intime to do some emails and a chat with Finnoula before setting off on our 10 min walk into town. We had dinner at Foley’s followed by a drink at Ryan’s ( where we chatted to a funny man called Martin who loves Australians and told me his Mother’s name was Frances) and a final drink at O’Malleys to listen to some music. I Love all the names of the pubs! Then home to bed.
TUESDAY
We had an early start driving through the most beautiful landscape to Muckross House set in gorgeous gardens by a lovely lake. The weather had cleared and it was blue and sparkly. We did a tour and found out all sorts of info from our little guide named Mary McCarthy. We had lunch in Killarney ( we were glad we had stayed in Kenmare as it was very touristy here) then moved on towards the Dingle .
We started to see some beaches and as its summer holidays, there were bodies on the beaches.
We stopped at Inch beach and just watched . It was so funny to see the cars drive right down onto the sand where signs warned them to drive carefully in the sand! There were kids having surfing lessons, kids digging, dogs running, people drinking coffee at the cafe and everyone seemed to own a wet suit. Must be very cold in that water .
Continued onto Dingle and found it to be a charming little seaside town. Quite arty crafty. They had a trail of arts and crafts which we visited followed using the map supplied at the Information Centre. Found a great leather place. Had to drive down a very long drive but finally arrived at a showroom – very small and very tastefully done. Beautiful bags on sale so I couldn’t resist. Steve promised to carry it home for me (long with the beautiful throw rug I bought at Muckross House).
So we booked into our B&B Dunlvin House to find she had given our front room away. The room was got was on the back of the house and was really very good. For 70E a night with a big breakfast it was a bargin. We freshened up and made our way back to town for a drink and dinner.
We walked around the town and finally booked for dinner at a shack (called Out of the Blue) which had come recommended – it sold fish but NO CHIPS! We got the last table and that was at 8.30. So started with a little pub crawl. Dinner was just great. Again not just a Fish and Chippery. Really good seafood.
I had wanted to stay at Castlewood House which we passed on the walk back into Dingle. It looked lovely. Anyone booking here try and get a little closer in to save walking along a very dark road after a few drinks!
In saying that – our B&B was quiet and breakfast great.
frans travel tales 