Ring of Kerry: Kenmare

We were delighted to see the sun shining when we went down to an early breakfast before setting off on our day of sightseeing. It was a good omen ... even though the sun played peek-a-boo with the clouds throughout the day.

Setting off to drive the Ring of Kerry in a counter-clockwise direction, our first stop before leaving Killarney was to have been the Torc Waterfall. Alas, the road to get there was closed. In fact, we had to backtrack a bit. Hence our direction driving the Ring ended up being clockwise instead. Luckily, the convoys of buses that tend to clog traffic on the narrow Ring of Kerry roads were non-existent today.

Those who know us well are aware of our affinity to all things associated with the polar regions. The name of a County Kerry man — Tom Crean — is well known in the annals of Antarctic exploration. He participated in three expeditions ... two of which were quite eventful. Having read that he had a restaurant in Kenmare, we wanted to at least check it out.

So, arriving in Kenmare, we parked the car and set off to find “Tom Crean’s Fish & Wine.” We didn’t have to go far. Turns out that we’d parked across the street from it. Next, we went for a stroll around town. We were surprised to find the streets mostly deserted ... surprising at 9:30a on a Monday morning. Noticing that the door to the Holy Cross Church was open, we popped in to take a look at the stained glass windows ... for which I have a particular photographic fondness.

And then, we were off to continue our drive.

(More about Tom Crean at this link if you want to learn more ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Crean_(explorer)).Read more