The Ring of Kerry

July 14th, we left the Ballyroe Heights Hotel, after a delicious breakfast with a great view, to go to Killarney for our bus tour of the Ring of Kerry.

We boarded the coach, and our driver, Morris, introduced himself. He was a fabulous guide all day, giving us detailed historical information and geographical explanations and lots of laughs!

The first village, called Killorglin, was cute, but particularly notable because of a unique festival held there annually. This year Puck festival will be held Aug 10-12. A goat will be chosen from the fields nearby and crowned King of the town for 3 days. It will be placed on a 40-ft tall platform in the townsquare and literally have a crown placed on its head. The pubs stay open 24-hours per day during this celebration. It has historical reasons, but still seems pretty hilarious.

Our first stop was at the Red Fox pub and Kerry Bog Village. Brad and the kids opted to go into the pub and gift shop to browse, while I paid €5 to check out the traditional peat bog village museum. Peat farmers still work in the bogs today, harvesting peat “bricks” that are used throughout rural Ireland to heat homes and other buildings.

We passed a building with several antique cars parked in front, as well as people dressed in period costumes. Morris said that he thought they were reenacting an oceanside jaunt from the early 20th century.

Another stop was along the highway to see a beautiful ocean view. A man with a baby goat was selling his wares. Sam and Charlotte went over to see the goat and found out her name was Lucky and she was only 5 months old. The man was kind and let both kids take a turn to feed it.

The following stop was at a sheep dog demonstration by a sheep farmer named Brendan. This was a definite highlight of the tour for all of us! We got to see how sheep dogs are trained to herd sheep. It was amazing to see how the dogs could follow specific commands perfectly to not only move the sheep where the farmer wants them, but even to separate certain sheep from the rest of the herd. Brendan was incredibly funny and witty and the dogs were so brilliant. The sheep were cute, and we got to learn about different breeds of sheep, too.

Morris told us all about a revolutionary named Daniel O’Connell who masterminded Irish independence and wanted to solve problems without using violence. He is from this area of Ireland. The remains of his family home are pictured below.

We passed a little island called Valentia. It is the island where first transatlantic cable was laid to communicate with people in North America.

Next, we came to Waterville, a posh little town famous for its Charlie Chaplin connection (he bought a vacation home here) and for having the best golf course in Ireland (Tiger Woods and other famous golfers have a huge estate here because they would come to prepare for the British Open at that course).

Throughout the tour, we made multiple stops to take in spectacular views of the ocean, Skellig Michael (where monks used to live in beehive-shaped dwellings and where scenes from Star Wars were filmed), the Kerry lakes, and Ladys’ view.

For lunch, we stopped right along the water at Skariff Inn. The food was just okay and was very expensive. It was clearly a place that only feeds tourists. This was the most disappointing part of the trip.

The final stop was a little town called Sneem that had a big souvenir shop and some ice cream. Charlotte and I bought ourselves matching silver Claddagh rings. Brad was super glad that he didn’t drive, as many parts of the Ring road were insanely narrow, windy, and steep!

It was a great tour, but we were all glad to get off the bus back in Killarney. Too bad it was just in time to begin our 4-hour car ride back to Sligo!

stopped at a grocery store along the way and dined happily on Brie, baguette, and apples in the car.

Tomorrow will be a day for relaxing…