Hotel Lake Killarney

... open. We drove across the bridge to Valentia Island, which is the home of the Skellig Experience. The Skelligs are a group of islands off the coast of Kerry. The main one is Skellig Michael, which is the site of a sixth century monastic settlement complete with beehive huts. Before we came here, I wanted to go to Skellig Michael and climb to the top, but we would have had to be here before they close for the winter on September 30, and the crossings in an ...

... Pass. I took a picture of MacCarthy’s Bar which is on the cover of a book by the same name before we left town.


By the time we reached the turn-off for Healy Pass, the rain was gone, and the sun had come out. We climbed, this time from south to north, saving the best part of the pass for last. On the way down, we passed a small waterfall that had been insignificant yesterday, but the recent rains had made it a somewhat worthwhile stop.


Back at the b ...

... to pick us up.

We again stopped at the seal rocks, which were beginning to disappear with the incoming tide, then returned to the mainland.

We then drove to the Glengarriff National Park and Oak Forest. They have a waterfall walk, so we took it. The waterfall wasn’t huge, but it was a nice walk through the forest before we headed for Kenmare.

On the way to Kenmare we passed the Lorge Chocolatier, out in virtually the middle of nowhere. We stopped in ...

... to practise their rally car skills needs to do this first part of the ring of Kerry!

Up on Lady's view we had a perfect view back along the way we came.. we had lunch at Waterville, what would be a very lovely sea side village in the summer! lol. The day was quite mild but the water was freezing!!

Back around the other side reminded me of Scotland with the wild mountains and mist!!

This ...

A complex of churches in this area. The ruined cathedral is from the 12th century. Two churches are in the graveyard - one is the Teampall na Griffin from the carving of the Griffin. (Couldn't see it due to maintenance, but got a photo from the exhibition).
A short walk away was another ruined friary.

... bog community area. Poor Pat had just sat down to drink her tea when we rushed her out because we thought the group was leaving - no tea for Pat.

The next stop was for lunch and picture taking. Lunch was an odd experience. All of us descended on this pub at the same time, and a lady wearing two different plaids sat down at our table to eat - sort of family style since there was not enough room. Both she and Pat ordered the ...