Ireland Day 6: Ring of Beara

This day was mostly spent on the road, driving along some very scenic routes. We left the place in Kenmare and drove toward Killarney National Park. Once again, the scenery starting looking like Scotland. The hills were very rocky, and everything was green. There were some great scenic vistas, windswept lakes, and lots of twisty little roads.




After a while, we left the park and kept on driving. Our main driving destination was the Ring of Beara. There are many such "rings" in the region. This is what they call a scenic drive that goes around the edge of a peninsula. We stopped at a little village harbor for drinks, which was pretty scenic.



It rained off and on throughout the day, but the sun did come out a few times, leading to some spectacular scenery. These were the smallest and twistiest roads we encountered on the trip. Many of them were just barely big enough for one car. When we saw someone going the other direction, one of us had to back up to the closest wide spot in the road! We finally got to see the ocean along this drive...



We stopped by a small cemetery in one of the villages along this route. It had been built up inside a small church that looked very old...


Then we drove through the town of  Castletownbere... which had some nice boats.


Continuing back to Kenmare, we drove through Healy Pass, which had some incredibly twisty roads, and improbably located sheep ;)



...and finally back to Kenmare. It was another colorful town. At dinner, I had something called Banoffee pie, which was sort of a cross between banana creme and caramel (yum).  One of us made the mistake of ordering Mexican food in an Irish restaurant. Fajitas (they pronounced fah-jye-tahs) are not a recommended Irish dish ;)


Here's our B&B in Kenmare, right on the ocean:



Proceed to Day 7:  Killarney National Park.

Go back to Day 5

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All photos (c) Hoyt Heaton, 2003, yadayada....