We began our visit to the Republic of Ireland by flying directly to the west coast to the tiny tourist town of Killarney. Killarney has been famous as an Irish visitors’ Mecca since Victorian times; the town of just 15,000 can swell to 60,000 at the height of the tourist season. Fortunately, we were there before peak season, so while the weather was decidedly brisk we weren’t fighting crowds at every step.
We arrived in the late afternoon, so didn’t really have a chance to do more than walk up and down the main street. Inspired by a Guinness truck cornering in front of us, we had a pub dinner and called it an evening in order to be ready for the next day’s tour.
On this trip we had decided to take a break from driving ourselves (on the wrong side of the road!) and so booked a series of coach tours. The first of these was out of Killarney to visit the Ring of Kerry, part of the Wild Atlantic Way, billed as the longest coastal drive in the world at over 1,600 miles. (Ireland seems to be sort of like Canada with respect to weights and measures. As part of the EU they are officially metric, but as in Canada older folks still refer to miles, pounds or stone, and feet. And of course beer comes in real pints!)
Our Ring of Kerry tour was a great introduction to the brilliant green landscapes of “The Emerald Isle”. Churches, lakes, and sheep in abundance, with some lovely ocean views on the Skellig Peninsula. Not too many stops, although the touristy Kerry Bog Village was surprisingly interesting, and the samples at the Skellig Chocolate Factory were tasty. At the end of our tour we had time for a bonus stop at the Torc waterfall which was scenic and only a 10-minute hike from the road. The only thing that was a bit “underwhelming” was Ireland’s highest mountain, Carrauntoohil, in the MacGillycuddy’s Reeks range. Their highest mountain is still 12 metres shorter than Eagle Ridge, Coquitlam on which we live, and which doesn’t even rate the title of “mountain”.
The following day we did rent a car for a few hours to get to some sights outside the town. Ross Castle, a restored fortress house, was a great tour, Muckross House and its beautiful garden were lovely, and the ruined Muckross Abbey was atmospheric. But the undisputed highlight of the day was a sheep dog demo at the Kissane Sheep Farm. Watching the energetic border collies herding the sheep was so much fun that we felt it needed a separate post.
We returned our car in the early evening, had potato based boxty for dinner, and got ready to head for Cork the next morning.
Images of Killarney and area on Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/100countries/albums/72177720316919975
