Ring Around A Kerry

The next morning after our medieval banquet and Irish malarkey evening, we arose bright and early for the splendid second "B" in B&B - an Irish B&B breakfast. Yeah, right. We had all entertained visions of baskets of steaming buttered scones, homebaked this and homemade that etc. etc. Well, the fact is, what you get served is decent but ordinary food such as an Irish family would eat themselves. Let's face it, most people don't stay up all night baking and so on. We Yanks are spoiled by U.S. B&B's where the draw is the fancy breakfast, otherwise you would stay in a Hampton Inn or something. In Ireland, I think the draw is the fact that a B&B is generally a cheaper alternative to a hotel. Which is fine. However it was a little disappointing.

At this B&B in Bunratty, we were given a choice of breakfasts. Abe, Roz, and I chose the scrambled eggs and smoked salmon. The eggs were OK, the salmon was great. Michelle ordered the pancakes. When they arrived, she determined they were the frozen, pop-in-the-toaster kind. I'm sure that this is what the lady B&B owner serves her own family and doesn't think twice. Did I mention that Michelle makes killer, from-scratch blueberry pancakes? Oh well. Also, Michelle did not like the Irish version of bacon - which I like. It's kind of similar to Canadian bacon, but in strips, very lean. Michelle thinks our fatty bacon is tastier. Pretty much all the breakfasts at B&B's were similar: decent enough, but very ordinary.

Anyhoo, from this point, we headed south into County Kerry and the sights around Killarney and the famous Ring of Kerry.

Our first stop was Killarney National Park, located just outside the town of Killarney. There we came across the semi-ruined Ross Castle on the shores of Lough Leane. The castle was once the stronghold of the O'Donoghues.

Ross Castle - Killarney National Park


Roz and I on the boat dock by Lough Leane - one of the famous lakes of Killarney

Our next stop was Muckross House: an 1843 Victorian Mansion designed and built by a Scottish architect. The family were wealthy and owned extensive property in the Killarney area. In 1932 they donated the estate to the Irish government and it formed the nucleus of the national park. We toured the house, which is decorated with period funiture and art. It was pretty amazing.

Muckross House - quite the little cottage


Another view- showing the porte-cochere or coach entrance

The Muckross House was also surrounded by some killer gardens. In Ireland's rainy, fairly mild climate, gardens are kind of a national pastime.

A view of the gardens and lawns


A sort of rock garden was part of the display


Finally, a close-up of some amazing rhododendrons in the gardens

After all too short a time at Muckross and Killarney National Park, it was time to hurry off to our next must-see: The Ring of Kerry. What's that? Well, in County Kerry, just to the south west of Killarney, there is a peninsula which is pretty much required on the tourist circuit. I'll let Wikipedia describe it: "The Ring of Kerry (Irish: An Mhór Chuaird) is a tourist trail in County Kerry, south-western Ireland. The route covers the 170 km circular road (N70, N71 and R562), starting from Killarney, heading around the Iveragh Peninsula and passing through Kenmare, Sneem, Waterville, Cahersiveen and Killorglin."

The Wiki paragraph above describes a trip around the Ring in a clockwise direction. We took the trip in a counter-clockwise direction. We did this for a number of reasons. One was we wanted to end up at Kenmare at the end of the day (where our B&B for that night was) and the other being the very practical one that the road around the Ring has some spectacular (read: steep cliffs) ocean views. By going the direction we did, we were assured that in left-drive Ireland, we would hugging the inner, or mountain side of the road and not the side with the steep drop-off. We were glad we did. Actually, the guide books claim you should go clockwise since the big tour buses go counter-clockwise and you won't get stuck behind one. I'd rather get stuck behind one than meet one head on on those roads. As it was, I don't think we saw any tour buses on the whole Ring.

The Ring was quite spectacular, both in the general scenery and in the ocean views. But it was, at times, a slightly scary drive. On a scary scale of 1-10, I'd give this about a 6 with the Road to Hana in Hawaii being a 9 and the California coast highway north of San Francisco about a 7.5. Had we gone clockwise, it would have been more like a 7.

One of the Ring's spectacular ocean views - not sure why the greens came out so vivid in this shot

Another ocean view - this is more typical as it was a cloudy day

A hillside with farmhouses

Michelle, Roz and I at a lookout

About half-way through the Ring, we all started to get a bit hungry. Fortunately, at this point we were entering a town called Caherciveen. We picked a likely-looking pub pretty much at random, and were rewarded with a lunch of delicious fishcakes with a side of what the Irish call potato wedges and we would call steak fries. Carherciveen was an interesting-looking town and like many places in Eire, I wish we might have had more time to explore.

The main street of Caherciveen at night - a picture from the Web. Notice that even the main street of a town is fairly narrow.

We left Caherciveen and continued on our rollicking way along the cliffs and hills. Eventually, at about the three-quarter mark, we came to the town of Sneem. Hmm... Sneem, wasn't he one of the pirates in "Peter Pan"? We stopped at bakery here for some tartlets/pastries which hit the spot quite nicely.

We stopped at this bakery in Sneem

Finally, we made it to the end of our epic drive and pulled into our B&B in Kenmare. If the name of the town rings a bell, it is a street in downtown Manhattan. It seems the street was named by early 20th century politician "Big Jim" Sullivan for the town where his mother was born. Ah, the Irish are sentimental S.O.B.'s.

Henry Street, Kenmare

After checking in and freshening up, we piled back into the car and headed into Kenmare proper for some dinner and hopefully some music. We were not disappointed on either count. Kenmare and the village of Kinsale are currently competing for the unofficial title of "culinary capital of Ireland." Once upon a time that might have been something of a joke. It is anything but, these days. We chanced upon a place called "The Coachmans Townhouse" in the heart of Kenmare. We had an excellent dinner and got to hear two young musicians: the Connor brothers play.

The Coachmans Townhouse, Kenmare

The Connor brothers

These two young fellows played guitar and electric fiddle and performed some really wonderful, foot-tapping music and I have to say, it was one of the highlights of out trip.

Then, afterward, it was back to our B&B and rest up for the next days sortie.

Next: Kinsale and Blarney