June 13 - Blarney to Killarney

June 13, Thursday  Blarney to Killarney via Kerry and Beara Peninsula

We lucked out big time today.  The day started with some bits of sun coming through and no rain!  The prediction was not good.  Our hostess repeated her recommendations, this time, with hand drawn maps to get us to the Blarney Castle and gardens and lawns (quite extensive, including a poison garden.. very interesting).  Thanks to Lorraine’s suggestion, we both got in for the senior rate, even though I was to turn 60 in July.  The castle itself is quite imposing, since it sits on a rock outcropping that is 8 meters high.  We watched as people climbed to the top, bent over backwards, literally, to kiss the Blarney stone to get the gift of gab.  We passed on it for various reasons.  I’d heard that the locals put nasties on it. If you want to kiss the stone, you climb to the top of the castle, stand in a line, get to the spot, lean over backwards, sort of dangling out a window ledge.  We have better things to do today.

Instead we went through the poison garden, and I found myself surprised at some of the plants in there.

From there we followed the instructions out towards Bantry Bay, and Glengariff on the Beara peninsula.   Today on the CD player, were Eagles, Billy J. Kramer’s new one, Herman’s Hermits, Zombies live, and Zombies Oracle and Odyssey).   In the British Isles, they don’t normally give instructions using road numbers, like N72 or R585, but rather go to the roundabout, take a right, then cross the next road, go around to the right, hang a left at the petrol station, left at the T, then it’s a few minutes down the road. Now and then you get an assemblage of signs like this.. not exactly easy to be reading at 30mph or more...

The road towards the Ring of Beara was a tight 2 lane, where the width of trucks is exactly the width of a lane.  Much of it was hemmed in by hedges as much as two stories high, immediately at the outer edges of the driving lanes. 

We spent some time in Glengariff, right at the entry point to the Beara peninsula.  There were lots of woolen shops, so I got a scarf and socks, and we grabbed some lunch (Irish Stew, with lots of root veg) just before the tour buses got there.  There was a bike ride to benefit Autism going on as well.  It was at a picturesque spot on the top of the bay.  From there, we drove down to Castletown Bere, more of a working marine town, walked around a bit there, then crossed to the other side of the peninsula, where the next bay over (Kenmare River) was very blue and very pretty. This shot shows Kerry peninsula from the east.

We went north along the west edge of the Beara until we saw a sign for a stone circle.  Thought that might be nice so took the even narrower road inland into the Caba mountains.. quite imposing.  The road, after another turn, was a true single track through tunnels in the trees, some made of purple flowering rhododendron, which grows like weeds there.  We were losing hope after many kilometers of driving and a number of turns onto narrower and narrower roads.  Finally we got to what looked like a dead end at a farmhouse, and there was the Shronebirran stone circle right nearby.  There were two sheep sitting inside.. very fitting.. took pictures.  The mountains surrounded us, most very rocky, showing the internal structures quite clearly.  This was a good diversion.

Got back out to the Ring of Beara and up to Kenmare, another picturesque town at the top of the Ring of Kerry, but just passed through, though it would have been nice to stop.

The “Ring of Kerry” is the most popular of the peninsulas, just to the west of the Beara peninsula, and we only had time to do part of that.  I was told over and over how crowded the Ring of Kerry would be, which direction to do it because of all the buses that there would be.  Clearly the cyclists like it.

So we figured we could go partway down the east side, down to Sneem, a river town, and then head back towards Killarney through the highlands in the middle of the peninsula.  Sneem was a very quaint town with a music store so we went in.  They had lots of the traditional Irish drums in there.  The bodhran has the shape of a tambourine, but no rattles; you play it with a short stick with two smooth carved ends).  I decided to get one.  I’d earlier bought an Irish tin whistle.  We crossed the river, which had amazing formations in it, metamorphic rocks, in beds upended (lots of photo opps here!).   This is the picturesque Sneem river.

From Sneem we went inland and up, up, up, to and over mountains, traveling in mountain valleys and occasionally over some “gaps”.  The landscape was quite extensive.  It looked like parts of the Scottish highlands.  From there we went over the Moll’s gap.

Kerry video

Leaving Kerry, we headed down into Killarney National Park, extremely picturesque with a string of lakes, near a string of mountains, a castle, a mansion, gardens and a waterfall.  There were lots of sheep and cyclists in the road in the area.  Wishing I could be one of those on a bike.

Killarney National Park drive video

Got into the Woodlawn B&B, picked up the package that the Bunbeg house sent (my British Isles AC converter), then set out on foot for the congested Killarney town center, 10 minutes away.  It was going on 9pm at this point and we were starving again.  Made the mistake of thinking too long about which restaurant to choose, and started finding one after another had just closed.  Eventually we found one that was still serving food.  Once again the portion size was huge.  I had lamb chops.  I couldn’t even begin to touch the three scoops of potatoes.  No room for dessert.  Back at the B&B, since internet was going in and out (they blamed a town-wide outage.. I wasn’t so sure), but did manage to Skype Mom and write notes for this blog.

Since we got into town late, we will plan to see the castle, gardens, and waterfalls tomorrow along with the Dingle peninsula.  Hope the weather is better than the forecast.