Killarney (Ring of Kerry)
The breakfast at the Agadoe Heights Hotel was described as “sumptuous” but after the previous evening’s dinner we had our doubts. We went down and were happy to find a very nice buffet of continental items including fresh honey from a slice of honeycomb.
We waited quite a long while for someone to come take our order for a main breakfast dish — Barb finally got up and tracked someone down after getting frustrated by my ineffective waiting. To make things worse, we were surrounded by several tables of older, obviously wealthy, obnoxiously opinionated, snooty and Trumpy Americans who were clearly on a tour together. Overhearing them was terribly distracting — I couldn’t even finish my Wordle game. I had to get up and find a quiet corner of the restaurant until our food came. (Once it was quiet I got the Wordle puzzle quite quickly.) After a while the touring Americans left and we saw them pull out on a Tauck tour bus. I’ve long considered Tauck the top tier of American tour companies but after that experience I am in no hurry to try one of their tours.
We finally got our food which was, after all, well prepared: porridge and a full Irish breakfast plate for Barb, a muffin (not specifically described as English, by the way, but it was) topped with Parma ham, poached egg, a dab of pesto and hollandaise for me.
We checked out and hit the road with Micheal promptly at 9am. The weather was misting with low gray clouds and chilly temperatures maybe in the 50s. Over the course of the day we were in and out of rain showers which limited our visibility — it wasn’t a washout but it never was great and never got warm. Michael did his best to keep our spirits up and adjust the schedule as needed to avoid the worst of the weather and the worst of the big tour buses also out on the Ring of Kerry drive.
We drove through the town of Killorglin with its traditional King Puck fair; Michael told us the story of the brave goat that warned of Cromwell’s invasion; it was better to hear it from him in the van rather than stop for a soggy photo op.
Our first stop was the Kerry Bog Village which Michael admitted was something of a tourist trap but he picked up the admission so we could see a couple of things inside. The first highlight was a pair of Irish Wolfhounds which Barb had expressed an interest in seeing. She loved them and was mighty impressed when one jumped up to look her in the eye.
The second was a little lesson in peat farming and replicas of famine-era rural Irish homes. It was touristy, indeed, but informative and we appreciated the brief stop to kill some time before our sheepdog demonstration. Barb enjoyed the little peat fire and its earthy smell.
We drove a bit further to Kells Sheepdogs, the location for the sheepdog demo which both Barb and I were looking forward to. We still had some time before the 11am show so we took a few photos and idled in the gift shop. I found a nice wool scarf that was reasonably priced so bought it to be a little warmer on the rest of our journey.
The sheepdog demo was led by the owner and trainer (Tom O’Sullivan?) and featured one of his younger dogs (whose name I forget — sorry pup — let’s call her Kelly for now) while Tom’s international champion (Tess) watched attentively nearby. The audience of about two dozen people were glad to be under a covered shed for the demo, watching as Kelly went through her paces with six reluctant but dutiful sheep. Tom had his patter down; the dog and sheep did their bits very well. A good little show.
We headed onto the island of Valentia, getting our first fuzzy glimpse of the Skellig Islands. We stopped at Bray Head for a few quick photos but the spitting cold rain made it less wonderful than I’d hoped.
The weather lightened a little when we stopped for a shot of Portmagee, the town on the mainland that has the bridge to Valentia. At least there were no tourist coaches on this part of the road. In fact, there was hardly anyone else.
We circled counterclockwise around the island, stopping briefly at Knightstown. It was just a small working harbor village but it had a few interesting things to see if we had spent more time. They seemed to want to have tourists but maybe on a sunnier summer’s day.
We drove as far as a slate mine with an incongruous religious grotto at the end of the road. As we came back we admired the lovely view of the Valentia Island Lighthouse and across the bay toward Dingle.
By the time we made it back to Bray Head, the weather cleared for some passable views of the Skellig Islands, an improvement over what we’d seen before. We paused for a bit and I could have stayed for an hour watching the weather move in and out, listening to the ocean peacefully lapping on the rocks below.
Leaving Valentia, we made a quick stop in Portmagee for a bathroom break then headed onward on the Skellig Loop section of Ring of Kerry. Michael invited us to stop at the Cliffs of Kerry which no doubt would have been impressive but neither Barb nor I were game to brave the incoming weather to climb along the boardwalks at the cliff face. Maybe some other day, some other trip. We made a quick stop for photos of (wild?) ponies near a prototypical farmhouse ruin on a green hillside…or was it someone’s actual house?
We went onward to Ballinskelligs where we stopped to admire the beach and ruins of its namesake castle and abbey. There were trails we could have hiked if we were different tourists on a different day. Ballinskelligs is also one of the terminus points of the first transatlantic telecommunications cables, for what it’s worth.
We rejoined the Ring of Kerry road, passed Waterville (Michael skipped past the statue of Charlie Chaplin and the story of his stays there, something I might have liked to see but didn’t realize it was there…but then I never said I wanted to see it so whose fault is that?), and stopped somewhere along the way for another peaceful view. Again, I could have stayed longer but we were getting to the tail end of our attention spans.
Both Barb and I dozed a little before reaching the town of Sneem for a pit stop among a whole bunch of big tour buses. We actually found a couple of things at one of the gift shops so it was a useful stop. We nearly bought Allie a sheep hat but decided against it. Barb rather enjoyed overhearing one husband tell his wife “we have 10 minutes before we have to get back on the bus.” It made us all the more appreciative of being with Michael and dictating our own schedule.
We made a final stop at the Kenmare Stone Circle, enjoying a banter with the gregarious owner of the site. We didn’t really need to see another stone circle at this point (and this was one rather disappointing) but I think Michael made the stop just so Barb could have a chat with the owner, one of his friends. We wrote down wishes and tied them to the fairy tree…so we know they’ll come true. Barb spent a good while with the owner, an “authentic Irishman for hire” who certainly had the gift of Blarney. We all had a good few minutes together.
I realized I hadn’t taken any good photos of Michael so I tried to take one as he was telling Barb a story about one thing or another. I never did get them to look at the camera but it somehow seemed more appropriate to have Michael in tour guide mode.
The Ring of Kerry was supposed to have been one of the highlights of the entire trip but I’d have to say the weather put a bit of a damper on things. Michael made the best of it for us, though in retrospect I realize we did do a bit of meandering to perhaps kill time or at least avoid the worst of the rain showers and big tour buses. We had a good time overall but fortunately there were better days (and better weather) to come. You have to take the weather in Ireland as it comes.
We got back to Killarney around 5pm and checked into The Ross Hotel, our home for the next four nights. I found this hotel via TripAdvisor more than a year earlier and actually built most of our itinerary around using it as a base for exploring Western Ireland. I let Walter’s Way know this was my desire but when it came time to book our trip Walter’s said the hotel was unavailable and offered the Aghadoe Heights as an alternative. I expressed my disappointment and was pleased a few weeks later when Walter’s told us the Ross had opened up for four nights. Based on my recommendation, Dan and David stayed there in May and reported it was a very nice spot. We were ever so pleased to not be at the Aghadoe Heights for five nights and to settle into The Ross.
For dinner we headed to Cronin’s Restaurant based on Michael’s and TripAdvisor’s recommendations. We had a good meal – fish & chips again for Barb while I went for the shepherd’s pie and a Smithwick’s ale. The friendly waiter praised us for making his job easy. The restaurant was nice but there were a few too many tables of American golfers in our vicinity. Theirs were not the dinner conversations we wanted to listen to.
Right near the hotel we found an Aran Sweaters outlet store. We shopped a bit, looking for a scarf for Allie; we ended up sending photos to her so she could choose. It was nice to have a few days in Killarney to sort things out.
I got Barb settled in the room then went out to seek some Irish music. I found five places nearby — the music was pleasant but not exactly inspired. All the pubs were packed and not very inviting. I went in one, waited about 10 minutes at the bar trying to order a Guinness that I didn’t really want, then decided to bail. I loitered outside another bar for a while then called it a night after 45 minutes or so. It was not an optimal music experience but I figured I had more nights to try.
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