Our ferry ride back to the mainland took an hour, due to having to stop at Inishmaan and Inisheer, the two other Aran Islands. We drove nearly four hours to Dingle. There wasn't much to see for a majority of the drive, but I made sure to drive in through the route that passed through Conor Pass, as it was reputed for having great views. The recommendations were correct.
We are staying at a bed and breakfast right off the main road in town. I took an evening solo walk from the bed and breakfast down the coastline, to see a small tower named Hussy's Folly, and the lighthouse. It was a nice meditative time, followed by Phish time.
The next day's itinerary was to simply drive the typical route around the peninsula, on Sea Head Drive, stopping for views and some attractions. The first such attraction was a stone fort called Cashel Murphy, which they had the nerve to charge three euros for. It took us two seconds to view the fort and to move on. The ones in Kerry were more impressive, and free.
Just around the corner was the Dunmore Head short hike is hyped due to its association with being a set piece of one of the recent Star Wars movies. It was indeed beautiful. The wind was fierce, otherwise I would have loved to climb down closer to the bottom.
Just a few minutes up the road was Clogher Head. Although there was no official parking lot, both cars and buses parked themselves along the side of the road. Miles and I hiked near to the end. The wind definitely made some of it rough going, but the occasional large rocks provided some respite.
We stopped for a moment at the Riasc Monastic Settlement, but it was pretty much an empty field. Another few minutes and we made a quick stop at the free parking lot of Gallarus Oratory. Google Maps reviews pointed out that there was another parking lot that charged for parking, while the free parking lot remained empty. Thanks reviewers! The site was solely about one structure, an early Christian stone church.
The last stop of the day was to see a graveyard with the remains of a church, called Cill Maoilcheadair.
I considered bringing us on another hike to end the day, but Miles was clearly worn out. We returned to the bed and breakfast for the evening.
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