West Dingle part 2

Our time in Dingle was lovely to the bittersweet end.

 

It was quite a confusing surprise to drive through the town of Annascul and find a pub called the South Pole Inn. That's how I learned that an Irishman named Tom Crean was an Antarctic explorer that, in retrospect, I realize I've read about in several books. He was a truly amazing man, born and bred in Annascul. After his years with Scott and Shakleton expeditions, he returned home, opened this bar, and lived the rest of his life here. Who knew?

 

You could spend several days just chasing down all of the historical and pre-historical sites in West Dingle, such as these remains of a Norman tower above Ventry...

...this flawless example of a monastic building prior to the days of centralized churches...

 

...the newer but less well preserved centralized churches...

...and so on and so on. Some of these things were hard to find, and we only had one day to play with so had to pick and choose what to see, but it was all amazing.

The scenery also continued to be jaw-dropping, whenever the rain clouds cleared. I had to take this picture sitting down to avoid getting blown off the bluff on an insanely windy day.

More than once, we returned to Murphy's ice cream shop in Dingle town. They had a chocolate sorbet and a sea salt flavor that were both beyond words. I kind of wish that when I die, it could be in a big vat of the stuff.

We took one more off-peninsula adventure, this time driving a portion of the Ring of Kerry to Valentia Island and the Fogher Cliffs area--also very windy and also very beautiful.

And the ring forts on the north side of the Ring of Kerry were startlingly well preserved and fascinating to walk around in.

All in all, a totally fabulous visit to Dingle & environs. I said goodbye to my lovely mother at the Shannon airport, traded our rental-car-for-four in for a much smaller rental car for just me, and drove north for a bit more Ireland time...but that is for another post.