Day 3: the Ring of Kerry
· Wednesday May 28, 2008
The Ring of Kerry is one of the most popular tourist destinations in all of Ireland. It’s a set of roads that wind along mountains and coastline in the southwest of the island, perhaps 100 miles or so in length. According to google maps, Elizabeth and I drove about 135 miles that day, including a couple small detours out to Ballycarbery West (where there were a couple forts and a small castle) and the ‘Ring of Skellig.’ The following map was generated using Google Maps, and adding points of interest with links to some of the photos on my blog =)
View Larger: Emery and Elizabeth’s Ring of Kerry Drive
I couldn’t quite get the driving directions to stick on the map, so I just roughly drew our route with the drawing tool. But for my first usage of google maps for something like this, I’m pretty pleased with it! Ain’t technology grand?
Overall, the drive was very pleasant. We chose to do the trip in a counter-clockwise (or ‘anti-clockwise’ as they say here) fashion, which is the typical direction of choice. Later in the summer, we understood that the roads get incredibly packed with buses, other tourists and cyclists, so going in a clockwise direction can occasionally be easier. Our first view of the ocean was a very welcome one, and the sights would just get better from there.
Ring of Kerry Drive
Interestingly, both Elizabeth and I probably most enjoyed the smaller detours we made off of the main Ring of Kerry. Our 10-euro road map showed that there were a couple small forts and a small castle on a small peninsula just North of Cahersiveen, so we stopped there for lunch. Elizabeth maintains that the climate was best described as cold, but just between you and me, it was cool and pleasant ;-)
Staige Fort
By many standards, these ruins were quite modest, but I think we felt much more connected to the landscape having stopped there. The sunny, wind-swept stones offered us a glimpse into what it may have been like to live there 500 years ago.
Ballycarbery Castle
The coastal scenery truly was stunning at times, and the color of the ocean was much more suggestive of Mediterranean coastline than either of us had expected.
Ring of Kerry Shoreline
The roads, while well-kept for the most part, were narrower than we were used to; I think Elizabeth was still adjusting to driving on the left and on these smaller streets. I promised not to distract her whilst she was driving, so I took a minimum amount of pictures while she was behind the wheel… but I couldn’t resist this one time :)
Road Works
We both found it funny that there were numerous signs for ‘Road Works Now,’ though we only actually encountered working crews about twice the entire trip. The previous shot was taken during one of those brief encounters :-)
If you follow the full Ring of Kerry, it also takes you through some lovely little villages. One of the larger towns is called Kenmare, just South/South-West of Killarney.
Kenmare
Though we debated staying there for dinner, we decided that it would be more relaxing to sup back in Killarney. The last shots of the day on the Ring were taken overlooking Lough Leane.
Overlooking the Lough
The next day’s travel would take us back up north, toward Galway and beyond. Stay tuned =)
— Emery Ku
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