Ireland Day 5 – Cork to Killarney

 After we checked out of the B&B in the morning, we got on the road headed to Killarney.   Our first stop was the Timoleague Friary ruins, which was about 15 minutes away from our first B&B.  I was expecting standard ruins, however what we got was ruins turned into a cemetery.  Every “room” except one had grave plots in it, and they were not all really old graves, some were as modern as the early 2000s.   I realize in the 1600s and earlier they buried people in the abbey, but this seemed a little odd.  After walking along the friary ruins, it was on to our next stop, the Drombeg Stone Circle.

The nave of Timoleague Friary 

The Drombeg Stone Circle is a nice little stone circle. The circle itself isn’t very big, and the stones are about my height some a bit smaller.  There were also some remnants of an ancient well house and home.   It was a nice little stop.  The next stop was Baltimore Beacon in Baltimore Harbor.

Drombeg Stone Circle

We drove almost directly to the beacon, except there wasn’t parting at the top of the cliff, so we needed to backtrack slightly to a pull off where we could park and walk to the spot, we turned around to go up the path to the beacon.  We took the difficult path up to the beacon.  It was extremely windy on the cliff where the beacon is located, but a great view.   I really had to brace myself to get some of the pictures.  After the pictures we walked back to the car using the easy path back down to the road.  We were going to have lunch in Baltimore Harbor but neither of the two places open for lunch seemed appealing, thus we skipped lunch and just ate some granola bars on the way up to Killarney. 

The Baltimore Beacon and Jim

View from Baltimore Beacon Area

Once in Killarney we had about an hour to kill before we could check into the second B&B at 4:00pm, so we went to Ross Castle.  Ross Castle is a fully restored, using traditional methods, tower home.  Think single square castle turret, or if castle could be turned into row homes, this would be one in the row.  The tour was about 45 minutes explaining the history of the castle and the functions of each of the rooms.  Sadly, no pictures were allowed inside the castle.  From there it was on to our second B&B.

Ross Castle

The second B&B seamed normal from the outside but felt like I walked into very fancy Italian grandma’s house with all the white marble and white carpeting.  We had to remove our shoes before going to our room.  They also only serve breakfast at 9:30AM, no exceptions, and to top it off it was only a continental breakfast, not cooked.  We are supposed to drive the ring of Kerry tomorrow we want to be on the road earlier than that.  When we got up to the room it was very white gothic with two sinks one in the bathroom and one in the bedroom proper.  I just did not feel comfortable there and didn’t feel like I could relax.  I felt if I was in my late 70’s it be fine, but not great for a modern couple like Jim and I.  So, I checked us into a hotel in downtown Killarney, after calling the tour company and telling them we weren’t staying in the B&B they booked for us.   The tour company is figuring out what they can do now, but I wasn’t going to wait on them.  I would rather eat the cost of a hotel room than be in a place I didn’t feel welcomed or comfortable enough to relax.   So, after going back into town and checking into our hotel we went and found dinner.   We ate at The Laurels Pub and Restaurant where we had deep fried brie, Jim had a burger and I had potato and chicken cakes with mushroom gravy.   That concluded our busy day.  Tomorrow, we drive The Ring of Kerry.