Southwestern Ireland

It seemed a long trip down to Kenmare, just south of Killarney where we had booked our next accommodation- partly because we did a detour to the Cliffs of Mohir. Unfortunately there was a heavy sea fog which meant we could not see the Cliffs over a great distance even though we walked for over half an hour along the cliff path from the southern end. And, to be honest, other coastal cliffs we saw in the south west on the outermost part of the Ring of Kerry seemed just as spectacular in terms of height. The Cliffs are one of Ireland’s most visited tourist attractions.

Our accommodation at Kenmare was a few kilometres out of town on the banks of the river. Lovely spacious house. Kenmare was an excellent base for sightseeing in the area and has some very good restaurants- much better than we encountered elsewhere in Ireland. However we did avail ourselves of the large kitchen at the house while we could as we knew we would be having to eat out for the next few weeks. Kenmare is a very pretty small town but was incredibly busy with tourists being peak season.

One day trip was the famous Ring of Kerry- however, the only part that lived up to the hype in our opinion was the outermost circuit which some people miss out as the road is very narrow. Here we encountered some more amazing coastal scenery, including on a hike at the eastern most end of the Peninsula

Lunch stop at Portmagee on Ring of Kerry- a pretty fishing village

Views from our hike around Bray Head on Valentia Island on the Ring of Kerry.

Another day Pamela, Roger and I hiked up in the Gleninchaquin Valley while Richard chased a little white ball around for the afternoon.

We also did a 2 1/2 hour hike around Killarney National Park but which had pretty views over the lakes. The landscape is very typical of what we saw on the west coast – quite rocky.

Another week of good weather – can our luck hold?

Next stop – Northern Ireland.