Ireland: Dingle-Killarney-Cork

This post is part of a series covering a road trip through Ireland. You can find the previous part HERE. You can find part 5 HERE.

"Filching John Benny's wife?!"

Morning in Dingle dawned... clear. Not especially warm, but clear. Looked like a good day to go whale watching, but first we went for a wander around Dingle again, this time so I could find myself a nice little thing to take home. Filching of the WiFi at the previous night's pub to attempt to book onto a horse riding session for the next day while we were at it.

Souvenirs bought - lovely little leather-bound notebook and a Connemara marble necklace. Pretty things.

Foxy John's Bar/Hardware Store/Bike Rental...

Finally left Dingle at just before lunch to make the short trip down the coast to Ventry and our whale watching trip. Went on a bit of a mystery tour trying to find the pier, but managed to locate it eventually.

And so it was onto a little boat and out into the Atlantic to see if we could find some whales. Saw a colony of seals at Great Blasket Island. Very cute.

Sailed on past the other Blaskets and then out across the waves south towards the Skellig Islands. Which never got nearer than about 20 miles, but you could see them quite clearly. Would have liked to visit them if we'd had chance.

Gemma and I got sat out on the bow for a while. Great fun until we turned back towards Ventry and headed into the wind. Got just a little bit soggy then.

All the back to Ventry and still no whales. Disappointing, but they are after all wild animals. Can't force them to show up.

After that it was just a case of driving the hour or so to Killarney, via the tiny village of Inch. That's where I stayed when I first came to Ireland and it was nice to see it again even though we didn't stop. Beautiful place.

Hit the rain just as we got to Killarney. Fortunately we soon dried off in the lovely Dunloe View Hostel.

"Will you please stop eating?!"

Tried to feed the hostel's goat a carrot the next morning. It didn't want it. Lots planned for the day, so we set off in search of the riding stables. Headed towards Killarney. Thought we were going the wrong way. Turned round. Drove for a while. Decided we'd gone wrong. Turned round again. Finally found the stables.

So nice to be on a horse again. I used to go riding when I was little, nearly 20 years ago but it's amazing how familiar it felt when our guide helped me up onto Aladdin, a lovely bay horse. As I got myself comfortable, Claire and Gemma were helped onto their own horses and I heard our guide explain to Claire that her horse, Monty, had a few bad habits. Nothing was said to either me or Gemma about any bad habits our own horses might have...

Satisfied that we had at least basic control over our horses, our guide led us into Killarney National Park. Beautiful place that is, but due to being on a horse for the first time in forever I didn't take any photos.

Claire started having a few difficulties. All the horses were interested in eating the grass and other plants they could reach when given the chance but both Aladdin and Gemma's horse Solomon responded to us pulling them back. Monty on the other hand... well, Monty's bad habit seems to be that he's an eating machine and he was determined to ignore every pull and nudge Claire gave him. At one point he dragged her nearly through a tree and a hedge, which resulted in a whole assortment of bumps and scratches.

Not that I escaped completely unscathed. We went for a few short trots. Now, in theory I remember how this works and I was quite comfortable with the first couple. On our final trot Aladdin decided initially that he didn't want to go and when he finally did, he went just that little bit faster to catch up. I had an awful moment of flashback to when I fell off the Shetland pony when I was little and had about 5 seconds of sheer bloody terror before I managed to convince myself everything was fine. Aladdin seemed completely unfazed.

Anyway, our hour of riding was up all too soon and we had to be off again. Our next stop was the Prince August Toy Soldier Factory. A bit of a weird choice, but we'd seen it in a leaflet we'd picked up and it looked so odd and unusual that we had to see it.

We ended up casting our own toy soldiers and then painting another one. And since we'd just been riding, we all chose men on horses. Two and a half hours we spent in that shop painting tiny tin men and bloody good fun it was too. Here is my masterpiece.

The plain cast figure is now sitting on my computer at work.

After that it was over the back roads to Kinsale for a lovely tea at Dinos Restaurant. Really good fish (I had fishcakes) and really good value. Kinsale looked like a pretty little place, but since we'd spent so long painting toy soldiers we had no time left to explore. We had to be off to yet another action packed adventure!

Starlight kayaking, that is. Claire and I had been kayaking in New Zealand, but this was completely different. Starting just before 8pm from Reen Pier in West Cork, we set out into the calm waters of the bay in the gathering darkness. It was beautiful - the stars coming out slowly overhead, bioluminescence beginning to spark in the water and us just bobbing along in a little group. Probably my highlight of the trip and I'd recommend it to absolutely anyone.

Unfortunately, again, with me being in a kayak and it being rather dark, I have no photos of this amazing experience save this very poor shot of the stars that I took before we got back in the car.

And then the Sat Nav sent us down a road with grass down the middle on the way to our Travelodge at Cork. Grr.

Long day, late night. Glad we booked that Travelodge.

Hostels
Dingle, Co. Kerry: Rainbow Hostel
Killarney, Co. Kerry: Dunloe View Hostel

Things to do
Whale-Watching, Ventry, Co. Kerry (45 euro for 4 hours)
Horse Riding, Killarney, Co. Kerry (30 euro for 1 hour)
Starlight Kayaking, Reen Pier, Co. Cork (50 euro)

Ireland: Connemara-Galway-Tralee-Dingle

This is part three of my posts about my Ireland road trip. You can find the previous part HERE. You can find part 4 HERE.

The boys of the NYPD choir...

Our second week in Ireland heralded the end of the rain, at least for a little while, so we decided to make the most of it and took a drive down the coast road along the southern edge of County Galway.

Before we got there, we got sidetracked by this pretty view and the shop across the road from it.

Anyway, postcard buying urges satisfied, we did actually set off for the coast road. Which is beautiful and wild and full of delicious views like this one.

So yes, it might have been a bit cold, but we went for a walk on the beach regardless. That's what beaches are for, right?

And then onwards to Roundstone, a quaint little village. More lovely views and a yummy brunch at the Bog Bean Cafe. Broken biscuit cake is amazing.

Onwards again, still following the loop of the coast road back up towards the main road. Saw lots of Connemara ponies, so that part of my Ireland dream was definitely fulfilled. Beautiful animals.

Up along the main road, which is every bit as brilliant as the coast road, just minus the sea views. Had a brief stop at Oughterard to eat lunch and to watch the river go raging past - obviously a bit swollen with the rain.

At last, late afternoon, we came to Galway having spent more time than we'd expected pootling along from Letterfrack. Galway's a nice little place, supposedly great for live music, though we didn't go to see any. Took a walk along the bay front instead and, obviously, sat on the beach singing Fairytale of New York. All together now...

Anyhoo, we weren't really in the mood for cooking and given that there was a really nice looking pub not far from the hostel, we figured we'd eat out. Ended up at McSwiggans, where we had a really good meal for a pretty reasonable price. Chocolate fondant pudding was gorgeous. Yum.

And then to bed in anticipation of what would be our longest driving day.

Why is it still raining?

A bright start in Galway lulled us into a false sense of security. Not far out of the city the clouds rolled in and down came the rain. Any vague plans we might have had to stop somewhere and explore the Burren, a beautiful limestone landscape, were rained off.

As was the plan to stop in Lisdoonvarna to investigate the Matchmaking Festival. No parking anywhere to be found and still the rain came down. Onwards.

To the Cliffs of Moher! Famous, they are. Even got themselves into a Harry Potter film. I'll admit they're pretty impressive but getting charged 6 euro each to park the car when entry to the visitor centre is free was galling. By all means, charge to park, but charge per car, not per person in the car.

The visitor centre itself was... middling. The "virtual reality" film we saw was... how to put it kindly... badly done? Maybe if we hadn't just driven nearly 2 hours in the rain to get there we might have been a bit more open to it. As it is, it's a blatant tourist trap and you'd be better off parking further up the coast and walking in. If it's not raining, of course.

Rant aside, we pootled off again along the Wild Atlantic Way, sadly without the stunning views we were hoping for. A quick ride on the Shannon Ferry brought us from County Clare into County Kerry and then, with the weather apparently clearing, we went on the lookout for something to do.

We found nothing. It being a Sunday, a lot of places seemed to be on reduced opening hours and most towns we drove through were dead. And so we came to Tralee, after about 4 hours of driving, a bit miserable and damp.

Nice room at the Castle Hostel, unfortunately compromised by the burst water main in the town centre which meant we had no running water for most of the evening. Lovely owner though who brought in bottles and bottles of water so we could at least have a cuppa.

Oh dear. Not our best day in Ireland.

Weather has taken a turn for the wetness

Next morning in Tralee was still damp, but not quite as bad. Did a quick run to the Tourist Information office to book onto a whale watching trip and then headed off on the morning drive to Dingle.

And it rained again.

By the time we got to Dingle, the weather was improving and we managed to have a wander around the town. Another lovely little place, with plenty of independent shops and galleries. Grabbed some lunch at the Treehouse Cafe, which was filling and really reasonably priced.

Raided a few gifts shops and finally made it to a post office to post off the stack of postcards I'd built up. There's something really lovely about sending and receiving postcards don't you think?

Quick trip up the road then to our hostel for tea. Rainbow Hostel in Dingle is brilliant - it's got a massive kitchen and clean, reasonably sized rooms. Scoffed down some pizza and then headed back into town to finally find ourselves some live music in a proper Irish pub.

And by proper Irish pub I mean a pub that doesn't have a whacking great sign outside advertising itself as a "traditional Irish pub". I've always thought there was something a bit "lady doth protest too much" about that. Decided to try out John Benny's on the seafront. I'd say it was reasonably priced, but I don't have much to compare it against. Good live music though, so we spent a good few hours in there before heading back to the hostel to get a good night's sleep before our planned whale watching trip the next day.

Hostels:
Galway, Co. Galway: Salmon Weir Hostel
Tralee, Co. Kerry: Castle Hostel
Dingle, Co. Kerry: Rainbow Hostel

Things to do:
Cliffs of Moher, Co. Clare (admission to visitor centre: free. Parking: 6 euro/person)