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.

West Dingle part 1

Time is flying as we're having fun in our new home in Dingle Town. The town itself is great, with tons of excellent restaurants, an amazing local ice cream business (more on that later), and easy access to the western part of the peninsula, one of the last remaining strongholds of traditional Irish culture and the Irish language.

 

The local market had some beautiful offerings...



 

...and over near the town of Dunquin we got to try our hands at making little bits of pottery.

The B&B where we're staying is entertainment in and of itself, as it is home to a menagerie of farm animals that greet us loudly as we come and go.

They say the Dingle Peninsula is the westernmost point of Europe, but there is a group of islands called the Blaskets off the west coast of the Dingle that for centuries were home to what must have been some of Ireland's heartiest stock--and that's saying something. We had to wait for what was the nicest day of our entire trip to even undertake the ferry crossing--an adventure in and of itself--to Great Blasket Island.

The ruins of the island's village (home to a couple hundred people in its heyday) were almost as nice to look at as the view.

We took a nice walk up the hill, ate a picnic lunch, basked in the sunshine and gentle breeze...heaven.

To Killarney and on to Dingle

We decided to take a trip a bit further afield and drove over to Killarney for a day to explore a bit around there. At Killarney National Park, we checked out the old monastery..

 

...and the nearby Muckross House, a very impressive country estate that is the heart of the surrounding national park.

We also had time for a quick stop in the center of Killarney town, which is super touristy but also, let's be honest, super adorable.

Then it was time to switch our base from Castlegregory, on the north side of the Dingle peninsula, down to Dingle Town on the south shore. The drive from there to here via Connor Pass was that day's adventure, with the sweeping scenery and mostly sunshine making for a glorious time.

Sister K and I scrambled up some rocks at a roadside pullout and discovered this amazing little lake below a glacial cirque. Well, we didn't discover it, but you know....

The top of Connor Pass was W.O.W.

And when we finally got to Dingle Town, it did not disappoint, either. I'm pretty excited to be based in this area for the next week and to get to know it. More to come!

Emerald Isle

And the adventure continues...in Ireland!

 

It's funny how after twice taking the 17-hour flight between Dallas and Sydney, a 7-hr flight from Chicago to Shannon feels like it goes by in a flash. Thank goodness for all of the TV shows and movies on in-flight entertainment!

 

This trip is a bit of an experiment for me. Usually I move around a lot while I travel to try to see as many parts of a country as possible, often sacrificing quality for quantity and exhausting myself (and anyone traveling with me). But I have been to Ireland once before, long ago, so it didn't seem like a painful idea this time to pick just one part of the country and plant. Last time here, my mom and I had marveled at our brief glance at the Dingle Peninsula as we sped by in an insane, 10-day circle of the whole country. Wishing at the time that we could have explored it a bit, we chose tiny Dingle Peninsula as the spot where we'll spend our whole two weeks, getting to know it well and seeing what it's like to travel at a very relaxed pace.

 

So we--my mom, sister, and I--arrived in Shannon and were met by our great friend P, who is spending the whole summer in Ireland with her husband. The four of us set off on the couple-hour drive down to the Dingle.

 

We took our time heading south, stopping in adorable towns along the way...

 

...and literally stopping to smell the roses (in Tralee).

We arrived to Castlegregory, the first of two spots we'll use as home base the next couple weeks, and settled into a cozy B&B with a lovely view of the base of Mount Brandon (which is apparently shrouded in mist more often than not).

It's been great fun to explore tiny, quaint Castlegregory, which has a fantastic Sunday morning "country market" full of sweets and breads and cheeses and handicrafts and CHOCOLATE. (My fantasy is to spend every day in Ireland drinking coffee and eating scones, with an occasional bowl of soup and bar of chocolate thrown in for variety. But I won't actually do that. Maybe.)

Once we had a solid night's sleep under our belts and were no longer dozing off during every pause in the conversation, we started exploring further afield. We're going to try to take a day hike every day of this trip (weather permitting, and that's actually a big question mark in this chilly, rainy, windy corner of the planet). We warmed up our legs today with a long walk on Brandon Beach (aka Back Beach, aka the longest beach in Ireland).

Then we drove through Cloughane out to Brandon Point, where the clouds momentarily cleared, giving us great views over the water and back toward Brandon Beach.

"Do those sheep know how lucky they are to live in such a beautiful place?" my sister asked. Probably not.

The enduring laughs and jokes have already started rolling, over delicious meals that always include the amazing "brown bread" that is standard here.

It's going to be a good two weeks.