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| The McGillycuddy Reeks |
If you find yourself in the southwestern part of Ireland, the Ring of Kerry is a way to spend the day and see a lot of beautiful Irish countryside. For my east Tennessee readers, driving the Ring of Kerry is a bit like doing the loop at Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. The 112 mile drive around the Iveragh Peninsula circles the McGillycuddy Reeks and is such a popular tourist destination that cars are supposed to travel clockwise and buses counterclockwise to prevent traffic jams at some of the narrow roads.
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| Kerry Bog Village |
My journey around the Ring of Kerry started in Killarney and our first stop was the Kerry Bog Village. I'll talk about Killarney and the Village another day.
The drive takes visitors through the town of Killorglin, where every August, they crown one of the wild goats King Puck of Ireland. The population of the town swells from a little over 1000 to 100,000 during the three day festival.
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| King Puck |
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| Dingle Bay |
Soon, travellers moving in the counterclockewise direction see their first glimpses of Dingle Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. There are several stop-offs where you can pull your vehicle to the side of the road and snap some beautiful pictures of the water. This was the last glimpse the Irish, fleeing the oppressive British rule and the Irish Potato famine, saw of their homeland.
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| The coast at Waterville |
The little town of Waterville is an excellent place to stop for lunch. Waterville was one of Charlie Chaplin's favorite holiday spots. The town made him an official citizen and there is a statue of the comedian along the boardwalk. I had a delicious bowl of beef stew in a hotel restaurant. The coast is rocky and the water rough.
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| Ballingskelling Bay |
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| Kenmare River |
After you leave Waterville, the road winds upward with green pastures and the sea falling away to the right and dry mountainside rising to the left. At the peak, you can see both the Ballingskellings Bay and the mouth of the Kenmare River.
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| The church in Sneem |
The town of Sneem is full of character. The buildings are painted in bright colors, the legend being that wives had all their homes painted in different colors so that drunk husbands would stop going into the wrong house after a night at the pub celebrating with the lads. If you stop in Sneem, go by the Post (office) and ask if I left my package of Griffin pins there, because that was the last place I saw it.
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| The Black Valley |
After Sneem, you begin the descent back toward Killarny. That trips takes you through the Black Valley. The valley was sparsely populated to begin with, but following the potato famine, it was totally deserted. Every resident had either died or emigrated to America.
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| The lakes of Killarney from Ladies' View |
The Ladies View allows visitors to gaze out over the three lakes of Killarney. It is called Ladies View because Queen Victoria's ladies-in-waiting were taken there to admire the view. The road after the Ladies View is narrow and winding. Encounter a large vehicle on the sharp turns made me quite nervous. The last stop is the Torc Waterfall in the Killarney National Park. If I didn't know my pictures at Torc were taken in Ireland, I would think they were taken in the Smokies. It's easy to see why the Irish were drawn to this part of America.
Plan a full day for the drive around the Ring of Kerry. There is plenty to do outside of the drive. The area is filled with places to hike, bike, fish, and golf. Travellers on a student tour get a little glimpse of a lot of things. Looking at the
Grand Tour of Italy from EF Tours for 2013, there will be plenty of time to appreciate the Italian countryside as we travel between our major destinations of Venice, Florence, and Rome.
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