The Ring of Kerry

We had originally planned on driving the Ring of Kerry in one day, but after experiencing the Irish roads, we decided to take two days. We booked a B&B in Knights Town on Valentia Island to break up the day. Our first stop was Kenmore, where we checked out a stone circle that dates back to 2200 to 500 BC. It's one of the largest stone circles in southwest Ireland. Our next stop, after some beautiful scenery and many tour buses, was Sneem. We walked around the colorful little town and browsed in the gift shops. It's definitely busier on this drive. There were a couple of viewpoints we couldn't stop at since all the parking spots were taken. We decided to look for a WW2 historical marker that was what we thought a short side trip. At first the single lane wasn't too bad and we only passed one car. The road gradually got worse till I convinced Randy to turn around when there was a wider spot in the road. The views were spectacular, but the road was probably the worst we had been on. We continued on to the Skellig Ring and had great views of the Kerry Cliffs. We were all quite happy when we crossed the bridge to Valentia Island. It had been a long driving day. We had a bit of a surprise when we pulled into the driveway of our accommodations in Knightstown. I found it on Booking.com, the pictures looked great, the reviews were excellent, and it was rated 4.8 out of 5. Best of all, it was waterfront. However,I didn't even want to get out of the car when we arrived. The gardens were overgrown, and there was an assortment of strange items in amongst the tall grass and weeds. Our host was sitting outside waiting for us and told us a bit about the house. It was over 200 years old, his family bought it in the 1960s, and he grew up there with his 8 siblings. He and two of his brothers still lived in the home, and he ran it as a Bed and Breakfast. The house was huge and very old. We both had our own bathrooms, but they were across the hall. It was a little creepy, but we lived to talk about it. The view from the property was so beautiful, and it turned out OK in the end. The next morning, after a full Irish breakfast, we took a small ferry off the island and completed the Ring of Kerry drive in Kilarney. Randy had his t-shirt on from Kilarney Ontario, and we found him one from the original Kilarney. Our final stop before arriving in Dingle was Inch Beach. What a beautiful spot. We first walked the beach and then went back for the car and drove on the beach. The sun was shining and it was really warm, so it was a perfect beach day. Czytaj więcej