Ring of Kerry day

Day 7 Saturday, June 11th
We left very early that morning, heading towards County Kerry through Mallow. Going counter-clockwise around the ring, we were determined to get to Valentia Island by noon. But we still found time to let the kids play on Kells beach for a little while. The views were great! There were a few tour busses out but they stopped at every gift shop or restaurant so they didn't concern us. There were several places to stop alongside the road to see the scenery and we took advantage of a few of them. Arriving at noon to Valentia Island, we purchased our tickets for the Skellig Cruise. But with 2 hours to spare, we enjoyed a leisurely lunch, brief movie of the islands and Meri had a nap with me in the car. The movie told about the monk's lives on Skellig Michael. The monks lived there between 600AD -- 1000 AD. They built little beehive shaped huts out of stones at the top of these chunks of rock islands off the coast of Kerry. The movie went on to tell you to imagine how many puffins it would take the monks to purchase a leather satchel or how many seal skins it would take them to purchase a bushel of grain. The movie was exhaustive in its imagination and the kids had great fun thereafter imagining for it. How many puffins it would take to buy things in the souvenir shop. We spent the equivalent of many many puffins there ourselves.
The tour boat finally arrived and we took our places on the side benches. The kids took turns sitting next to the back. Wind whipped around us on the ride out. It took about 30 minutes to reach the first of the Skelligs. On the way we were passed by sea gulls carrying seaweed in their beaks. My lips tasted salty. I took many pictures with my digital camera on the way out and by the time we reached little Skellig my camera battery died. Each of the kids, however, had cameras, but not a lot of film. They took some great shots of the islands.
The first island was little Skellig. Totally run by sea birds, it stank! And was covered with bird droppings. A lovely white. We made it past that and headed for Skellig Michael. Much more impressive with it's greenery and rocks. An old lighthouse was on one side that had been built in 1904. Back then the whole family of the lighthouse man lived there. And the museum told the tragic story of how each of their young boys met their death over the edges of the steep cliffs. They built a new lighthouse and modern road to it in the 60s. We could have taken a boat out and actually climbed the bijillion steps to the top, but we would've had to leave quite a bit earlier. Beautiful!
So we started our way back clockwise now back towards Killorglin and our bed & breakfast near Killarney. We arrived at Kingdom View around 5pm and settled into our rooms. Kingdom View was just as the name says... A View of a fabulous and lovely kingdom. The lady of the house was very nice! She recommended a couple different places to eat dinner after we told her what we were looking for. We decided on Kate Kearneys cottage about 5 kilometers away.




When we drove up to Kate Kearneys, the parking lot was packed with cars and busses. I didn't know if they'd have room for us. Kate Kearneys cottage specializes in traditional Irish music every night. If you have reservations you can eat in the room that the musicians are in. Otherwise you take your chances on a place to eat. We managed to luck out and get a table right on the edge of the reservation room, so we had a clear view of the musicians. Well, at least their backs. A couple of young girls dressed in traditional Ceili Irish dancing dresses showed up and danced with a couple of the songs. Meri & Maddy were VERY impressed and Meri wants to take lessons. Dinner was great! Everyone was exhausted when we finally came back to the B&B. Maddy & Ryan shared a room and we made sure they locked themselves in before we settled into ours with Meri. Meri gave us rules for using her side of the room, since she had her own bed on the far side. She said we had to have a really good reason to come on her side of the room. Having to use the bathroom was a good one we discovered. The door of it was on her side.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• ring
• kerry
• ireland
• skellig
• valentia
• beach
• ocean
• vacation

[Inuyashabuddha]

we just got back from ireland its so fricken green,i saw grass growing on walls when did you guys go

[MCVALKRIE]

We went in June of 2005. Second time to go in June and you're right, the green is everywhere and gorgeous. The 40 shades of green comment someone made should really be 400 shades! Did you have a great time?

[necromancer17]

what song is this?

[MCVALKRIE]

This is Boadicea by Enyas Celt cd 1987.

[FREDLUCASMETIME]

hey i actually live in kells its a buetiful place cahersiveen is nice asweel some great restaurants such as qcs and french pastry!

[Fr33Fisting]

I was just there in March. Off season for me since I'm a poor Canadian. Drove the ring twice, drove in from Dublin. This being my third time in Ireland, let me tell you that driving in Ireland is NOT an easy task, takes a lot of skill. If you aren't a really good driver, take a bus tour instead. They're reasonably priced and safer. You will never see the speed limit on the ring of Kerry. If you do, you'll be 500 ft down a cliff.

[sugarpuffsandwich]

you may also remember this tune from 'ready or not' by the fugees.

[Rupert54]

Leave the people out of it and leave the scenery.

[djShite]

Was down there in 05 also... had to say that all it had to offer was the beautiful scenery. There was feck all craic around, most the bars were like morgues because of the lifeless German tourists despite the live trad music. For anyone who wants to experience the real rural Irish craic visit Clare or Galway... pubs there you can't even hear yourself think

[Inuyashabuddha]

ya it was fantastic aside from the green ,all the resteraunts have great freshly made food its not frozen and stuff, and people where so nice the only people hat seemed rude there where german tuorists and lik these 2 waiters at a resteraunt and we were there for 10 days

[skyzze]

very pics

[NewYorkGardener]

It's as if I were looking at my own family photos!

Thanks for posting a beautiful scenic video.