The other half of the Ring of Kerry

Today I started the Ring of Kerry clockwise. The road took me through the Killarney National Park which is just gorgeous especially the lakes.
At Molls Gap I took the minor route down to Sneem and then joined the official ring of Kerry again.

I came across Kissane Sheep Farm. I got there just in time to join a tour, unfortunately it was with a bus load of Germans and the guide was speaking German. It didn’t stop me from enjoying the sheepdog demonstration. It was traditional hill farming. The dogs were border collies and the sheep black faced Scottish mountain sheep. That much I could understand. It was a great demonstration of the dog’s skills.
After this was a shearing demonstration. That was okay but once he’d finished the guide then spoke for another half an hour and I couldn’t leave the group without appearing rude.
As I was looking in the shop another tour group appeared and this time they were Americans so I went back up to the sheep dog demonstration. It was much better with the commentary. The farm has 2000 sheep on 2500 acres, much of it mountains. A lot of it isn’t really accessible by vehicle so they still use dogs and their trainers on foot to bring the sheep in.
I again watched the shearing demonstration learning that the wool is a coarse wool and used for making carpets. All the processing is done in Leeds and Bradford in the UK.

From there I headed back to Killarney. I stopped off at the meeting of the waters, where the three lakes in the National Park meet. It was very tranquil.

I decided I wanted something with some spice for tea so stopped at a Tapas bar. The prawns in chilli oil were very bland but the other two dishes I had were very good.Read more