The Ring of Kerry

The next day we headed out to drive a scenic route around the Iveragh Peninsula called The Ring of Kerry. Unfortunately this was our rainy and foggy day in Ireland, but we made the best of it.

We started in Kenmare, went through Sneem and around the ring we went. We even did the red scenic route sticking out from the official Ring of Kerry. That turned out to be one of the coolest parts.

 

A random stop along the way.

sheep!

After driving through fog and not seeing much, we arrived in Waterville and were able to see again. We parked the car and walked along the town's beach.

Apparently Charlie Chaplin spent a lot of time here in Waterville. According to our guide from our boat ride on Muckross Lake, Chaplin was able to have some privacy in this small town. People thought he was a little off (he used a different word), but left him alone.

Back in the car again, we headed toward Ballinskelligs. We didn't really know where we were going, but saw a sign for a beach decided to investigate.

This was one of our favorite places. It was just us, a castle with unrestricted climbing and the water.

This overexposure is kind of cool- Toby walking off  across some shimmering water to a castle tower.

The fog covering the hills in the background is most likely what we drove through earlier in the day.

On top of the tower from the outside...

...and the inside

so far down...

After the stop at the beach, we continued on around this little ring. We passed by the Skellig Rocks which is home to a wide variety of birds and on the larger rock, there are remnants of a monastery. I would have loved to go but, when planning the trip, we didn't have time. (We wouldn't have been able to go anyway because of the weather.)

As we drove on we did see a Skellig we could get to: Skelligs Chocolate. 

In the middle of nowhere there was this chocolate factory.  You could watch them make their chocolate and they gave tons of free samples. 

Although we were hungary, we wanted something more than chocolate for lunch, so after tasting (and buying) some chocolate we continued down the road to Cahirsiveen at ate at Frank's Bar. It was tasty.

As we rounded the corner of the Ring of Kerry we explored the Gap of Dunloe and Muckross Abbey.

On the way back to our B&B we had some sheep crossing the road. There were more, but I didn't get my camera out it time. In addition to the sheep, you can see the sticker in our rental car reminding us to drive on the left side of the road.

That night we ate at a place called Davitt's and got to listen to some more music. This couple played a variety of instruments and also sang acapella. They admitted that they played more traditional songs than the younger kids played next door (at The Coachman's).

After dinner we went back to the B&B and prepared to say good-bye to Kenmare.

Blarney Castle and County Kerry (part 1)

We said goodbye to Kinsale and headed north through Cork to Blarney. Although Blareny Castle is considered touristy and maybe a bit tacky, I really enjoyed it. The grounds were beautiful, the castle was fun to explore and kissing the Blarney stone was an experience :)

We raced ahead of some tour groups up the tiny winding stairs to the Blarney Stone. As we waiting for our turn, we got to read up on the Blarney Stone and the difference between Baloney and Blarney:

The guy in red was the one to help us get in position to kiss the stone. It was quite the assembly line. You sat, turned around, the guy helped you down, you kissed the stone, and up you went... Next!

The tour group we beat up the steps:

On the way down we stopped and looked through the different rooms of the castle.

Back when the castle was in use there was a floor beneath this fireplace, but I thought it was neat that it now looked like it was floating.

The Blarney Stone was at the top of the castle. The bit of blue peeking through in this pictures was where you leaned back to kiss the stone.

After the castle we headed for Killarney. On the way we saw a sign for pottery so we pulled off the main road to a tiny road which ended by this little cottage. The potter came out and we got to talk to her for awhile. We eventually bought something for my parents as a thank you for watching Elyse and Anastasia.

We had lunch down the road from the pottery place in the tiny town of Ballyvourney at An Cruisein Lan Cafe (I had a awesome brie panini with onion relish), and then continued on to Killarney National Park. Again, we had wonderful weather.

We stopped by the visitor center at the Muckross House to ask some questions and figure out what we wanted to do next. Instead of taking a tour of the house (at this point we had discovered we liked looking at ruins rather than done up houses/castles) or taking riding in a Jaunting Car (horse drawn cart), we opted for a boat ride around Muckross lake.

We got to the lake and the driver was just hanging out as if he were waiting for us. As he showed us around the lake we got to talk to him about the area and how he spends his day. He told us how lucky we were to be out on the lake in the sunshine :)

Limestone

The Meeting of the Waters where Upper Lake, Muckross Lake and Lough Leane (the biggest lake of the 3) came together.

We then went through this "secret" river into Lough Leane...

...back under this bridge and into Muckross Lake once again.

Our guide- born in Boston to Irish parents and then grew up in Ireland.

The boat house

I think the tour of the Lake was one of my favorite parts of the trip. It was so nice out and the water was calm, plus we were the only 2 on the tour.

Down the road from Muckross House was Torc Waterfall. We parked and walked through a moss covered forest for about 5 minutes to the falls:

After a few stops and some photo ops, we were in Kenmare.

Ashfield B&B in Kenmare was very nice. It felt like we were a guest in someone's house that could cook great breakfasts. I wish it was in town so we could have walked to dinner, but is was only a 3 minute drive into town and Mary was a very helpful hostess. 

Kenmare's main strip:

We ate dinner at The Coachman while Micheal O'Brien and Sean O'Connor played. O'Brien really got into his music.  The music was entertaining, but the food wasn't the best.

When Micheal O'Brien was done, so were we and we headed back to the B&B for some sleep.

Side note: When I was looking up O'Brien for a link I found a lot of footage. He played for some big crowds. I didn't realized we had a front row seat to one of the best accordion players in Ireland.