We’ve had a most enjoyable visit in Dingle town and exploring the peninsula. And now it's time to go. Leaving our Benners Hotel. It's been a nice place to rest our head. Moving along, loading up in the bus, driving out through town, we are heading south as we continue our tour of Ireland. Following is the text of the movie. Photos, videos, links and maps will be added later.
We’re driving from Dingle down to Kinsale where we will spend the night and along the way we will stop off in Killarney for a little visit. It's just over 100 miles away, normally takes about two and half hours but will take nearly twice that long, taking it easy, stopping a few times, a few detours here and there for the scenery. We are not in any rush. We’re in Ireland and you don't want to be rushing when you're visiting Ireland.
In fact, we’re starting out this morning driving in the opposite direction. It's a little scenic detour driving up the hills of Dingle up to what's called the Connor Pass that goes across of the north side of the peninsula. It often gets cloudy up here as it's doing today so you really don't see that much in these conditions, but it's still rugged landscape to have a look at.
It's a narrow, winding road, not so good for a bus, especially at the top where it gets even narrower. So we’re not going all the way over, just driving up most of the way to have a look, turning around and driving back down again.
If you drive across to the north side of the peninsula you'd reach the little village of Cloghan, which is a wonderful peaceful spot. They have some bed-and-breakfast there, no hotels, but a nice place to stay, and there's a pub that has some rooms too.
The weather finally cleared up and the sun came out on the beautiful green rolling field, so we stopped the bus so we could get out and have a good look. This is really the best view that we've had so far of the famous green Irish rolling landscape.
With sheep grazing on the sloping fields and the borders of the wild ragwort yellow flowers, and stone walls, and some houses off up on the hillside. It's quite a scene.
We’re still on the Dingle Peninsula near the little village of Lispole. We’re on the main road of the peninsula and you can see it's a little narrow. The paving is pretty good actually. They've improved the roads of Ireland a lot in recent decades.
So, you could drive a rental car if you want to get around on your own, no problem, but it's a little easier to be sitting on the bus and let the driver do the work.
Continuing along on the Dingle Peninsula, we stop at a 3-mile-long beach, ironically called Inch. It's one of the longest beaches in Ireland so this is an excellent place to get out of the bus, take your shoes off and go take a walk along this very flat beach. It's tempting to walk in the water because it's just so shallow and gives such a beautiful reflection. You want to get out there to get the best possible picture with the clouds reflected down on the wet sand. Didn't see anybody swimming out there. It's a nice sunny day and fairly warm. We’re here in the middle of the month of May.
Continuing on south now, our next stop will be Killarney, as we pass through the beautiful scenery of the southwest of Ireland. It's one of the prettiest parts of the country.
Killarney is most famous for its three lakes, and the town itself is quite attractive. Killarney is the nation's most popular destination after Dublin. People are drawn here primarily for the natural beauties around in the National Park, but the town itself has developed into a major tourist magnet.
There are quite a few shops packed into a small area. Those main streets outlined in blue add up to only about 1/2 a mile so it's quite easy to walk through the center up and down both sides of the street.
One of the most popular activities here is riding in the horse carriage with some commentary by your local driver.
Oh (carriage noise).
You’re going for a trip around the lakes of Killarney, and back here, sir. (horse noise) I’ll be the third generation of my family doing this, guys. This is a jaunting car, sir, a jaunting car.
Right away the route takes you into the park away from the busy streets of the town. It's all part of the Killarney national Park.
You can take a short ride as were doing today for about 1/2 an hour and that gives you a little taste of the scenery. Or you can go for several hours, or half a day with your guide. There's a lot to see in the area.
Classic view of the cart with St. Mary's Cathedral in the background, the tallest building in town at 280 feet, a Gothic revival spire up there, and a tea room with traditional thatched roof.
I’m looking for a wife, yeah. And don’t worry if you’re married, because any man’s wife will do. (Laugh)
Back in the nineteenth century, the jaunting car was the main type of passenger vehicle. That's how people got around.
But today Killarney is about the only place you'll find them. There's some wildlife in the park. We slowed down and spotted deer. It's a popular route for bicycles, which you can rent in town.
And then we come up along the lower lake, the biggest in the park. Five miles long by three miles wide, guys, a freshwater glacier lake, Lough Leane, the largest of the three lakes of Killarney. Some great salmon and trout fishing out on this lake. Need a permit to fish for salmon but you can fish for trout for free, guys.
On the other side of the lake we get a view of Ross Castle built in the late 15th century. And destroyed in 1652 by Oliver Cromwell. It was the last stronghold in Munster to fall to the invading English armies.
Considering we only had a couple of free hours in Killarney, this was time well-spent, about thirty-five, forty minutes on the horse carriage through the park, and then back into town with a bit more time to explore.
Killarney does have nice wide sidewalks in the downtown area with trees and some benches, and the shops each seem to be unique. It's not like going to a big shopping mall. This place has a lot of character. The center of town, marked in the red circle is the crossroads of busy streets: High Street Main and New. Cars drive down the streets, so there's no pedestrian zone as such, but the sidewalks are nice and wide, it's easy to take a comfortable stroll.
If you strike up a conversation with some Irish lads you'll probably end up doing a lot of laughing.
I’ll be a YouTube sensation. (laughter)
You live here, I suppose. No. No, no. No.
Down for a weekend. But you’re Irish? We are. What gave it away?
How do you like Killarney?
Killarney is a beautiful town located in the south of Ireland. He didn’t ask that question. (Laughter)
The lakes, yeah, the lakes are fantastic, and the hotels are beautiful.
The people are lovely. (Garbled, laughter).
You might not catch everything when talking to the Irish, but the spirit certainly comes through.
Shoppers will find that you can purchase nearly everything in Killarney, being major tourist destination. There's lots of retail here, and the pubs, and the antiques, and the gift shops. Even if not buying they make it fun to look.
I have some archival footage of Killarney back in 1995 that I want to share with you because we had a chance then to meet one of the great characters of town, and listen to his authentic Killarney accent, which can be a challenge for some to understand: Mr. John O'Callaghan.
You know me. What’s your name? John O’Callaghan. John O’Callaghan? Yeah. My name is Dennis Callan. Oh yeah. I'm an ex-boxer. Are you, really? I boxed in the ring since I was about 20 years of age and I coached the boxers in Ireland. So I am well-known. And so you’re born and bred in Killarney? Born and bred in Killarney.
John Killer O’Callaghan they call me. I won a couple of titles. Killer O’Callaghan. Killer O’Callaghan, that’s my name. That’s great. If you shoot it on the screen, a photograph, back in Dingle now and ask them who is that? They will know. Okay. If you shoot it on the screen, a photograph, back in Dingle now and ask them who is that? They all know me, you know. That’s grand. Do you want to photograph? Sure, yeah, I got a picture of you. What a lovely….
He's gone now but is still honored every year with an award named for him at the St. Patrick's Day parade. In the old days, he and his boxers were always the stars of the parade.
A popular tour that you would enjoy is a trip over to House Muckross, just about 5 miles away from town, in the Killarney National Park along the shores of the lake surrounded by beautiful flower gardens, with tours offered inside.
Now this is the hall were guests, they have to wait before being shown into either the library or the drawing room. But it also had a more important function in the social life of the house, because, as it was the largest room in the house, whenever there was a dance or a party, the servants will be asked to lift the carpets, push back all the furniture, and the dancing would actually take place here.
The guided tour comes with your admission ticket that allows you to walk around inside the various rooms of the mansion. It was built in 1843 in the Tudor style and has 65 rooms with 19th-century furniture.
It was donated to the nation in nine1932, along with its 11,000 acre estate and formed the basis of the first national park in Ireland. We will show you a bit more of the gardens coming up in a moment.
You'll get a peek behind the scenes into the workshops – they have to do a lot of ongoing maintenance, of course, to keep up such an old house, and the pottery workshop. You can go into the gift shop and there they have an extensive pottery collection on sale. There's also a restaurant on the premises.
The jaunting car is a nice way to tour the grounds. You can hire one right on the estate for 1/2 an hour ride, if you like. No need to ride the horse carriage all the way out from Killarney town. The estate is ideal for discovering slowly on foot. So take a stroll, or maybe ride a bicycle, that's another good way to get around here. People rent bicycles in town and pedal all the way out here, just 5 miles, and then back again.
They've also got a traditional farm that replicates life back in the 1930s and 40s, a time when the rural countryside still did not have electricity, and so they had to rely on the traditional turf for their heating. That's the peat that they dig up out of the ground, and pile it up to let it dry, and then burn it in their fireplaces. It's still very popular today and does power some of the big commercial electric generators.
You walk through a couple of the rooms and then out into the farm, out in the back. They've got that most important of all Irish crops the potato, still the staple of life in this country, along with dairy products. There's a petting zoo here for the kids and maybe you'll get lucky and run into a fresh crop of kittens.
This time our visit to Killarney was a day-stop, not spending the night, just visiting for a few hours on our way down to Kinsale. Passing through that crossroads of downtown again at the corner of New, Main and High streets.
Heading out of the city, turning south towards Kinsale, with another nice view of St. Mary's Cathedral that we saw earlier from that horse carriage.
Irish roads have improved tremendously in recent decades. You can see on the map the main highways they put in, and the secondary roads that they've improved.
The economy was doing very well early in this century, not quite so well now, but they had a lot of money and invested in infrastructure, creating a modern state-of-the-art country with high levels of education that attracted much international business. They became the Celtic Tigers.
It takes less than one hour to drive from Killarney to Macroom, where we stopped for a nice break, stretch our legs and take a stroll through town.
We find it's typically Irish, with a lot of shops stretched out along the main street.
Right in the middle of town they have the remains of Macroom Castle, built first from the 12th-century. Today we see the castle gate house.
Macroom has a busy road, a main highway running right through the center of town. Like so many Irish cities, they want a bypass, and have made plans, and are constructing a road that will go around the town, so that the city will be much more peaceful.
Most towns in Ireland consist of the main street with shops along that one street and busy traffic running through it, creating a lot of noise and congestion. It seems like every town in Ireland now wants a bypass for traffic to go around on a peripheral road, so the town can be more quiet. Construction of these roads has been going on for decades now, with mixed results. It does create a more-quiet atmosphere in the town, but there also is a slight dip in economic activity because they don't have as many customers driving through.
We are reaching the end of our long day’s drive, starting out from Dingle and arriving now in Kinsale.
We have an entire movie all about Kinsale, as part of our series on Ireland. Be sure to look for it in our collection.