Off to Dingle and the Dingle Peninsula

To-go sandwich and a coffee

Next morning over breakfast we talked about whether to see the Dingle peninsula or the Ring of Kerry. We didn't have enough time to see both, we only had two nights, one full day then we were off to Kinsale. We decided on the Dingle Peninsula and are very happy we did.

Read the trash can, it
seems to work too as
we saw no full ones.

The day had turned out really nice and we headed up N22 to Tralee. It's not a small town but it gives the impression that it is. We parked our car and started walking around. We found some very cute shops and a cathedral as well as a nice little coffee and sandwich place to get a very nice to-go lunch we could eat along the Dingle peninsula drive. When we go back to Ireland I think Tralee will be on our list of places to stay, it's very close to the Dingle peninsula and we just liked the feel of it. 

We left Tralee and headed out N86 to Dingle (An Daingean).
Dingle is situated in a Gaeltacht region so the signposts are in Gaelic, some with no English but most with the English name in parentheses.

When we got to Dingle we were lucky enough to find a free parking spot so we left the car and started walking through the town. It's an adorable and colorful town and of course very tourist oriented. Well, we're tourists so that's perfect. You remember when we were in Dublin we found a pub called Neary's, well here in Dingle we found a place called Adams bar so we had to go in and have a pint.

Children playing in the surf

After our Guinness and another brief walk around town we collected our car and started navigating the Dingle peninsula. We headed out R559 toward Dunquin. Along the way we stopped at a beach area near Ventry to have our sandwiches and watch the children playing in the surf. It was sunny but pretty cold, I don't know how they did it.

Main cottage

From there we just continued driving, stopping frequently to take pictures. The views and scenery are breathtaking. We came to the Slea Head Famine Cottages and Animal Farm where they have some preserved famine cottages from the potato famine during the mid 1800's. There is the main farmer's cottage and several smaller peasant cottages as well as animal stables.

There are some animals there as well. This little pony really caught my eye as he was standing on this large rock trying to scratch his winter coat off on the edge of the balanced flat rock.

View of a section of the road

We left there and continued on our way following R559 around the Dingle peninsula. The road is very narrow (what would be considered 1-lane here) and since it's 2-way you never know what adventure lies around each turn. We were lucky enough to get behind a Land Rover for the worst of it so we just followed it through the gaps figuring if it could get through we certainly could. At one point we were within an inch or 2 of a passing truck on the driver's side and scraping the passenger side of our car on the bushes on that side. (The best investment we made on this trip was buying the full-coverage insurance when we rented the car.)

When we got to Dunquin, I rerouted us toward Murreagh on R549 so we could see a part of the Dingle peninsula not traveled by the tour buses. Very beautiful and rugged with farmhouses dotting the rocky countryside.

We continued following the road until we returned to Dingle. There we changed routes and headed for Conor Pass over R560.

Conor Pass view

By the time we got to the Conor Pass parking area the clouds had closed in and fog had obscured a lot of the view. As you can see, it was still spectacular.

We headed east on R560 toward Camp and another much lesser know pass on a road called "unknown". Siri directed us when to turn and we were off on our little adventure.

The road was like driving on a mountain biking path but a bit wider and paved, sort of. The only other's we met were 2 cars, a motorcycle and a guy hiking.

Sheep on Caherconree

There were lots of sheep grazing by the side of the road and up on the hillsides. They were different from some of the other sheep we'd seen as they had black speckled faces and were especially wooly. They didn't care a bit about us.

We crested the top and stopped the car to take a photo. It was so beautiful up there and so peaceful, not a sound except the occasional sheep bleating.

Top of Caherconree Pass

We headed down the other side and turned in the direction of Castlemaine and N70 to begin making our way back to Killarney.

It was pretty late in the day when we got back to our hotel and we were hungry and tired. We didn't want to go to a fancy restaurant for dinner. We just wanted something good and reasonably priced and a Guinness or 2. Low and behold, we looked across the street from our hotel and there was Sweeney's Hotel and Sports Bar, perfect!

Sweeney's from our hotel lobby

The place was crowded but we were seated pretty quickly.  We ordered salmon with chips and salad and Guinness.  It was really good!

There were a couple of soccer championship tournaments on the televisions. We were seated next to a German couple who were watching the Munich vs Dortmund game. We began chatting with them and got caught up in the game. They were rooting for Munich so we were too. It got pretty exciting when it went scoreless into overtime. Both teams played excellent defense. Even when Munich finally scored the game wasn't over because they have to play the entire amount of extra time. Then we were on the edge of our seats waiting for the game to end and hoping Dortmund wouldn't score. Munich put a cherry on top by scoring again and the game was over. Very fun evening. 

We went back to our room and went to bed.