Ireland Day 7 – Killarney to Dingle

This morning we got up, ate breakfast and checked out of the hotel by 8:45AM.  After checking out we stopped by a drugstore/pharmacy to pickup some Sudafed for Jim, since his sinus are all stuffed up. Then we got on the road headed for Dingle.

Our first stop was Parkavonear Castle just outside of Killarney.  It isn’t much of a castle, just a round turret next to some abbey ruins. The location also would have had a nice view of a town and lake, but it was all misty and overcast so you couldn’t see that far.  From there it was off to our stops in Dingle.

Parkavonear Castle

As we were coming into the town of Dingle proper we were surprised to find out today was the Dingle Peninsula race which includes running, hiking, biking, and kayaking.  Not sure if you were supposed to do all four events or if you could only do one activity.  The race messed up traffic through town and our route, so we ended up taking Google’s alternate route that added 8-minutes to our journey.   Our first stop was the beehive hut with sheep. These huts were from 2,000 BC.   Next it was on Cashel Murphy which was five beehive huts surrounded by an outer stone wall plus more sheep.   We didn’t stay long at Cashel Murphy because a large tour bus pulled in about 5 minutes after us and started off loading people.  We do not want to be surrounded by a bus load of senior citizens on holiday. Plus, we think they were all French and they make for uppity tourists. 

beehive huts

Our next stop was Dunmore Head, which was one of the filming locations for Star Wars: The Last Jedi.   Not exactly sure were the exact filming location was because we saw two signs but not one that said “Luke stood here” or “Rey stood here”, that would have been useful.   We then went past the location I wanted to see, which was the sheep highway because I messed up; but we are here for another day, so we’ll see it tomorrow.  From there it was on to West Kerry Brewery which we discovered didn’t open till three and it was 1:30. We wanted to eat there for lunch but no, so we back towards the tiny village we passed through and had lunch at a pub in the village.  

 After lunch we went to the Gallarus Oratory.  Which is a stone hut shaped like an upside down boat.  From there we took a little detour to the Wine Strand because I read the sign wrong and read Wine Stand.   Sadly there was no wine, just rocks and sea.   After that little detour we head back to Dingle Town proper to our B&B.

Gallarus Oratory

After checking into the B&B, which is a kilometer outside of town, we walked into town. We chose to walk because there still was no parking due to the race which was still finishing up at 2:30PM.  I have no idea how the race was or when it started.  In town we went to the tiny Dingle Aquarium.  It had fish, otters, and penguins. It was super tiny.  After that we found a pub to eat at before walking back to the B&B to call it a day.

I have us booked on an ocean safari for tomorrow. Hopefully we will see some dolphins or whales. We’ll also make the drive out to the sheep highway so I can actually see it.