After leaving Blarney Castle, we drove to Killarney which is the gateway to the Ring of Kerry. “Kil” in gaelic is spelled “Cill” and means church – thus all the towns with “Kill” made sense. We did a quick walk about Killarney and then went into Killarney National Park and Ross Castle and started down the south side of the Ring of Kerry. Very hilly with tight roads and I was a little rough on the clutch – jet lag was starting to hit a bit so we stopped in a little town called Sneem where Alexandra did her work call and I get a caffeine infusion and it was at this point that we started to transition to the ocean.
As we continued on the Ring of Kerry, we diverted onto the Wild Atlantic Way (which we didn’t know about) which is a coastal road going up the entire west coast of Ireland and ultimately ended up in our very small town of Ballingskilling which was on a eastern facing bay. After a quick and successful check-in to our AirBNB, we went to the recommended restaurant about 15 minutes across the hills to the Atlantic Ocean side. The recommended restaurant was the only restaurant for miles but new and had a great view of the sunset and Skillig Michael of Star Wars fame (where Luke ran to hide). www.driftwoodsurfcafe.com/the-experience
After some very good fish and chips – we headed back to our village and did make a quick appearance into the local pub – typical on this trip was with long sunny days we would get into eat or visit a pub very late – like 11pm every night.
The next day the plan was to continue on the Wild Atlantic Way (specifically the “Skellig Ring”) until we got back to the Ring of Kerry and maybe have a side-trip to Dingle. But on the drive we saw a sign for a farmer advertising the “best cliff hike in Kerry” so we stopped for a bit – well worth it and even a better view of Skillig Michael. We thought about a boat trip but it was going to be a most of the day endeavor, so we decided to drive out to Dingle and came across a huge white sand beach. And on an 80 degree day it was pretty packed – so we stopped for a bit before ultimately going to Dingle.
In Dingle we visited a couple of places, but luckily found a pub that had been recommended to us – a couple of hundred years old and relaxed for a bit and then headed to Limerick for the night. We missed the top portion of the Ring of Kerry by being more focused on the coastal areas but it was worth it.
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