County Kerry

This past weekend we had a wonderful excursion to County Kerry, where I saw some of the most beautiful sites that I have seen in Ireland so far. We left on Thursday morning and arrived in the town of Killarney around noon. After stopping at a pub for lunch, we continued on and toured Muckross Castle. The castle is best known for hosting Queen Victoria on her state visit to Ireland, and they prepared for six years for year two night stay, going bankrupt in the process. After checking into our hostel, we went to the grocery store to get some things to make dinner, and later on we checked out a couple of pubs. 

On Friday we toured the Ring of Kerry, a beautiful drive along the coast with a lot of scenic overlooks. Our first stop with the Skellig Experiece, where we watched a video about the Skellig Islands and looked at an exhibit. I wish we could have actually visited the Islands, where a monastery was founded on the steep cliffs in the 6th century, and the small huts that the monks lived in remain there still. But we were told that the water conditions have made it difficult to access the islands in the past few weeks, so we had to settle for the exhibit instead. We continued on to the small town of Waterville where I had some delicious fish and chips for lunch. We stopped at some scenic overlooks next, which were some incredible views- for sure some of the most beautiful in Ireland so far. We stopped at an old ring fort briefly, and then drove through Kerry National Park on our way back to Killarney.

On Saturday we started out the day by driving to Tralee and visiting the Kerry County Museum, which I thought was great. I loved the black and white photography exhibit about life in the county in the 1940s and 50s. We started driving on the Dingle Peninsula, and in the town of Dingle we stopped and almost all of the group ate at Murphy’s Pub and then walked around the pretty harbor area for awhile. As we continued driving, the roads began getting narrower and narrower, and soon we were driving  next to some steep cliffs with barely and space between our bus and the drop-off. It was pretty nerve-wracking for a little while! We came upon a beach and stopped for awhile- I think it was maybe one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. It really was breathtaking, as cheesy as that sounds, and the weather was perfect for the time we were there. I wish I could have spent an entire day there at that beach. After a few more stops along the Dingle Peninsula, we drove back to Tralee, and after dinner at a pub that most of the group ended up at by chance, we went to Mass at St. John’s church, which was beautiful on the inside. It was a very quick service, and the congregation really sped through all of the prayers and responses, everyone going at their own quick pace instead of saying it all together. And the communion experience was even more chaotic than the one at the church in Spiddal. I really don’t understand that process, it seems to have no rhyme or reason at all to it. When it's time to go up to communion, everyone just stands up at once and makes their way to the front of the church all at once. After Mass we walked to Siamsa Tire, the National Folk Theater of Ireland, where we saw the show Oilean, about the people of the Blasket Islands. The traditonal music and dancing was beautiful, and I think we all enjoyed the show more than we expected we were going to. 

On Sunday morning we toured Ross Castle, a castle from the 1500s which was really interesting. We spent a lot of time on the bus today, including a ferry ride that the bus drove right on to- an interesting experience, especially because there was a horse freaking out in the trailer right next to us that was rocking back and forth. After a lot more driving, we finally arrived at the Cliffs of Moher in the late afternoon. These are the cliffs that people picture when they think of Ireland, and they were very impressive. None of the pictures I took could really capture the size and scale of the cliffs. 

I really enjoyed this weekend excursion a lot, but we were all excited to finally get back to Spiddal late Sunday evening. This week we only are here for three nights, and are off again tomorrow morning for our trip to Northern Ireland!