West of Ireland (7): Killarney to Kenmare

Just a Part of the Ring of Kerry

Killarney

Ireland

County Kerry

Much of this blog concerns our travels in Asia where it is surprisingly easy to encounter huge cities largely unknown in the outside world. If I had not been there I would never have heard of Coimbatore (India) or Taiyuan (China) though they are home to over 5 million people. Ireland is different; you do not have to be Irish to recognise names like Tralee, Killarney and Tipperary though their combined population is less than 50,000.

Killarney

Killarney is 30km south of Tralee and after a leisurely though slightly smaller breakfast (we can't keep up the pace) and a short drive we were walking down Killarney High Street by 9.30. It is a pleasant, cheerful looking town, but we were too early and the butchers and souvenir shops were as closed as the cafés and seafood restaurants.

Killarney High Street

With its rugged coastline and fishing tradition we had expected seafood to be high on the list of local attractions, but the odd fish dish on pub menus apart we saw very little. We spotted specialist restaurants in Dingle and Galway as well as Killarney, but they were high-end establishments requiring booking - not user-friendly to those just passing through. Seafood, it seems, is not part of everyday life on this coast.

Tralee, Killarney and Kenmare in County Kerry

St Mary's Cathedral, Killarney

Leaving the high street we headed a few blocks west to St Mary’s Cathedral. St Mary’s was completed in 1855 to a design by Augustin Pugin (who died in 1850), an Englishman, catholic convert and leading light in the Gothic revival. This blog has encountered Pugin before, at Cotton in Staffordshire and Bolton Abbey in North Yorkshire. He was also responsible for the interior of the Palace of Westminster, and his son designed the building where I spent the last twenty years of my teaching career.

It is a handsome building sitting in a field away from the centre, more like a priory than a cathedral. The proportions are traditionally Gothic but the design of the west end with its three lancet windows is wholly Irish. The redwood tree marks the graves of children who died in the Great Famine (1845-52).

St Mary's Cathedral, Killarney

The interior is pure Gothic revival, particularly the use of rough stone above the columns.

Killarney Cathedral

A Heron in the River Deenagh

We attempted to walk back into town, though the road we took was a poor choice. Before turning right and setting off in a more appropriate direction we found ourselves beside the little River Deenagh. Hearing splashing we looked over the wall, peered through the foliage and saw a heron plodding along beside us through the shallow water.

Heron, River Deenagh, Killarney

Back in the centre we stopped for coffee then took another run down the now open High Street to buy a few gifts to take home.

The Ring of Kerry has been a tourist route since at least the 1850s when Killarney was the place to hire your horse and carriage for the 110 mile drive. It remains popular but we had time for only a part of it, despite not using a horse drawn vehicle it can still take a day or two - there is much to see on the way.

Ross Castle

The first stop on the Ring of Kerry is Ross Castle on the shores of Lough Leane barely 2km from the town centre.

Built for the O’Donoghue clan in the 15th century as a bog-standard tower house inside a square bawn, it passed to the MacCarthy’s in the 1580s during the Second Desmond Rebellion (see the Adare and Listowel post) who later leased it to Sir Valentine Browne.

Ross Castle, Killarney

The Castle put up stout resistance during the Cromwellian Wars (1641-53) until General Ludlow hauled a ship overland to Lough Leane, mounted his artillery on it and sailed up to the castle wall. The Cromwellian forces introduction of artillery into Ireland changed the balance of power, ending the days of the hitherto impregnable tower houses.

The Browne family claimed their heir was too young to have participated in the rebellion and were allowed to keep their land. There is however, a limit to how often you can back the losing side and get away with it. Supporting James II when he was ousted by the Glorious Revolution of 1668 led to the castle's confiscation. Until being abandoned in the 19th century it was a military barracks and all the buildings other than the bawn and tower house date from this time.

The guided tour took us up the tower house which is fully furnished, has excellent views across Lough Leane and must have been reasonably comfortable, at least when there was not a shipload of artillery floating outside.

Lough Leane from Ross Castle

After the tour finished we popped back into Killarney for lunch (a cup of tea and a sandwich) before continuing a little further round the Ring of Kerry to Muckross.

Muckross Abbey

Muckross House – a Victorian mock-Tudor stately home – and its 5,000ha estate were donated to the Irish nation in 1932 and became the nucleus of the current Killarney National Park.

The entrance is 3km south of Killarney. In the carpark beside the N71 is an array of jaunting cars, their jarveys (as jaunting car drivers are apparently called) touting for the honour of driving you though the estate. We gave them a wide berth, I have an allergy and prefer to avoid horses and anything that has been in contact with them, including jaunting cars and jarveys - it is nothing personal.

We decided to eschew the house and instead stroll to Muckross Abbey. Leaving the tarmac to the jaunting cars….

Jaunting Cars, Muckross Estate

….we found a pleasant path through the woods by the lake...

Path through the woods, Muckross Estate

….which wound its way round to the remains of the 15th century Franciscan Priory.

Muckross Abbey

The large complex has survived turbulent times, being partially destroyed and rebuilt on several occasions and is now largely roofless though the ruins are well preserved and in good repair (for ruins!).

Inside Muckross Abbey

Several sources say the most impressive feature is the two-storey cloister enclosing a large and gnarled yew tree.

Two storey cloister and alleged yew tree, Muckross Abbey

Ladies' View and Moll's Gap

Back on the road we drove past Muckross Lake, which is connected to Lough Leane, and then climbed to look down on Upper Lake, stopping for the photograph below at a spot called Ladies' View. When Queen Victoria passed this way in 1861 her ladies-in-waiting greatly admired this view; I was quite impressed, too, though I am neither a lady nor was I waiting for anything.

Ladies' View, County Kerry

7km further on we passed through Moll’s Gap. Technically it is a pass but with the road sliding from one valley to another via a notch in the valley wall, it feels like something else, though I am not sure what. The original ‘Moll’ ran an unlicensed drinking den near here when the road was under construction in the 1820s. There are supposed to be good views of the interestingly named Macgillicuddy’s Reeks, Ireland’s highest mountain range, but we rather missed them.

Kenmare

We gently descended to Kenmare 10km to the south at the head of the Kenmare Bay.

Kenmare is a small town (pop 2,000) but was even smaller in 1656 when Oliver Cromwell gave it (and more) to Sir William Petty as a reward for his mapping of Ireland. Petty had risen from humble beginnings to be a founder member of the Royal Society and is usually described as an economist, scientist and philosopher, though he was obviously also a cartographer. That, though, was not the limit of his abilities - an impressive polymath he was at various times instructor in anatomy at Oxford University and Gresham Professor of Music in London.

He lived in Ireland for 20 years, laying out the new town of Kenmare in 1670 and devoting himself to studying the local economy.

Kenmare centre

But the roots of Kenmare are far older. Two minutes’ walk from the town centre is the largest Bronze Age (2,500-500BC) stone circle in Kerry. There are 15 stones and a boulder in the centre balanced on a (part buried) burial dolmen.

Kenmare Stone Circle

Before leaving Kenmare I will add that it has an impressive array of pubs and restaurants, as befits a town where tourism is the major industry, and is home to the Kenmare Kestrels, one of the 13 teams in the British and Irish Professional Quidditch League. While that last statement is not literally true, it is correct.

It was late afternoon and time to return to Tralee and later to the Brogue Inn for more Guinness, traditional hearty Irish fare and a splash of Jameson’s whiskey.

The West of Ireland

Part 1: Galway

Part 2: Connemara in the Mist and the Rain
Part 3: Loam, Fine Dining in Galway
Part 4: Athenry, The Burren and Ennis
Part 5: Adare, Listowel and on to Tralee
Part 6: The Dingle Peninsula
Part 7: Killarney to Kenmare
Part 8: Ardfert, Flying-boats and Limerick

West of Ireland (6): The Dingle Peninsula

Old Stones, a Literary Tradition and Scenic Beauty

Tralee to Dingle via the Conor Pass

Ireland

County Kerry

We awoke to another dull, drizzly day, but fortified with a ‘full Irish’ - bacon, mushrooms, black pudding, white pudding and fried egg – we set off to explore the Dingle Peninsula, the northernmost of the fingers of land that make up Ireland’s southwest corner.

Driving out of Tralee we rounded Tralee Bay and headed down the northern coast of the peninsula. When the N86 swung south towards the town of Dingle we continued on the minor road which eventually also turns south, to approach Dingle via the Conor Pass.

Irealnd with County Kerry in green

Pedlar's Lake

The high ground down the centre of peninsula is rugged and remote, feeling more like mountains than hills. Winding our way upwards we paused at a pull-off beside a small waterfall. Above us, according to the Heritage Council’s informative signboard was a corrie known as Pedlar’s Lake.

Small waterfall below Pedlar's Lake

We set off scrambling up the rocks. Lynne was unimpressed and complained mightily, but it was hardly a difficult climb. A minibus drew into the pull-off and disgorged an American family, parents and three sons in their late teens/early twenties. The young men ran up the hillside, demonstrating just how easy a climb it was. Lynne snarled at their youth.

Pedlar's Lake, Dingle Peninsula

Reaching the top she moaned that there was nothing but a lake tucked into a hillside - well that is what a glacial corrie is. There were some good views though. When the American parents arrived, at a pace more like ours, we took their photograph and they took ours, so we can block out the view.

Blocking out the view, Pedlar's lake, Dingle Peninsula

We descended and drove the short distance to the top of the pass at 456m (1,496ft) from where we could see Dingle.

Dingle from the Conor Pass

Dingle

Down in the town we parked and walked up the main street. Though small - under 2,000 inhabitants – Dingle is the urban centre for a large area and has more facilities than most towns twice its size.

Main Street, Dingle

We followed one of the colourful side streets towards the harbour, pausing en route for a morning cappuccino.

Maurice O'Sullivan

Father Tom, a retired Catholic priest and therefore inevitably an Irishman, is a member of the same book group as us. He spent his childhood summers on the Dingle peninsula and recommended our group read ‘Twenty Years A-Growing’ by Maurice O’Sullivan, a memoir of growing up on Great Blasket Island off the tip of the peninsula (of which more later). It was largely because of Fr Tom (and Maurice O’Sullivan) that we were here.

Dingle’s altered a lot since the 1950s Father Tom told us, and no doubt he is right, but Dingle today looks cheerful, well maintained and prosperous, and if that is a change it is for the good. Like Connemara, Dingle is a Gaeltacht area, and the language we heard most as we walked to the harbour was Irish – so not everything changes.

Down to the harbour, Dingle

Dingle harbour sits at the end of large sheltering inlet and has ample room for working boats…

Dingle Harbour, working boats

….and pleasure craft.

Dingle Harbour, Pleasure craft

The Slea Head Drive

Ventry

The tiny village of Ventry is seven kilometres further west, the beach hiding behind a substantial caravan park. Drizzle had fallen at Pedlar’s Lake, but at Dingle the sun had emerged and the peninsula was looking its beautiful best. Even so Ventry’s climate would put it a long way down my list of desirable beach holiday locations.

Ventry Beach, Dingle Peninsula

The young Maurice O’Sullivan visited Ventry in the early years of last century, stowing away to join the adults for Ventry Races, competitions between boats from the local villages, and a great social occasion with much drinking and some fighting. The event has now grown into Ventry Regatta, a two day sporting and cultural festival, though racing curraghs, the traditional local fishing boats rowed by teams of four, is still a major part. I think beer is still involved, too, but fighting is disapproved of these days. We were ten days late for the 2016 version.

I remarked in the Connemara post that the hedgerows were full of wild fuchsias. Fuchsias are also common on the Dingle peninsula - and so are irises.

Roadside irises, near Ventry

The Clocháns at Fahan

We continued along the Slea Head Drive which would take us round the tip of the peninsula. We missed Dunbeg Promontory Fort which is off the road – and much of it has fallen into the sea – but did stumble across a group of clocháns, or beehive huts, a couple of hundred metres further on at Fahan.

The huts were a short walk up the hill from where we could look back down the peninsula.

Looing back down the Dingle Peninsula from Fahan

They are undateable, but could have been built any time between the Neolithic period and the 12th century. It is difficult to imagine how they were used; were they constructed for animals, humans or both and as homes, or merely refuges? Whatever their function they were certainly robustly built.

West of Ireland (5): Adare, Listowel and on to Tralee

The Desmond Rebellions, Medieval Castles and a Literary Town

Ireland

Ennis to Adare

We left Ennis, found our way back to the motorway and retraced our steps until the M18 became the N18 and led us into the outskirts of Limerick. We will visit Limerick later but on this occasion we stayed long enough only to turn southwest on the M21 then N21 to Adare.

Today's journey, Ennis to Tralee

Adare

County Limerick

The village of Adare may have only just over 1,000 residents but three abbeys/priories, in various states of repair, a manor house (now an upmarket hotel) and a major medieval castle mark it out as a place with some history.

Tourists flow into Adare in a steady stream and we were lucky to find a parking space beside a row of thatched cottages of the type that earned the village the reputation of being one of Ireland’s prettiest. The Manor was owned by the Earls of Dunraven and the cottages were built by the Dunraven Estate in the mid-19th century. We had parked outside one that is now a café, and as it was coffee time we ground a bean before strolling down to the visitor centre.

Thatched Cottages, Adare

Desmond Casle, Adare

Our Irish Heritage Cards had worked hard and we extracted more value by signing up for the next guided tour of the castle. We had little time to wait and could easily have spent more time looking round the historical exhibition.

Adare lies south of the Maigue River near a ford, hence its strategic importance. A shuttle bus took the tour party up to the bridge which replaced the ford in 1390, and the obvious place to build a castle.

The Bridge on the Maigue River, Desmond Castle, Adare

The first castle was a ring fort of the O’Donovans who ruled the region until the Norman Invasion in the late 12th century. Educated in England, as I was, I know all about 1066, William the Conqueror and the Norman Invasion of England but I had not known that a century later they carried on into Ireland. In the South West the Norman Invasion arrived in 1169 in the person of Maurice FitzGerald. He was a half-Norman Marcher Lord, the son of Gerald FitzWalter of Windsor and Nest ferch Rhys of the Welsh Royal House of Dinefwr. Her father was Rhys ap Tewdwr, so the subsequent FitzGerald Dynasty and the Tudors who, a few centuries later, would rule England were cousins.

Outer Castle and Moat, Desmond Castle, Adare

The FitzGeralds became the Barons and later Earls of Desmond, an area covering much of the modern counties of Limerick, Cork, and Tipperary. The castle they built beside the Maigue is known locally as Desmond Castle, but so are several of their other castles so the name must be used carefully.

Inner Castle and moat, Desmond Castle, Adare

The Normans assimilated quickly, becoming, in the words of The Annals of the Four Masters ‘more Irish than the Irish themselves.’ A number of common Irish surnames are of Norman origin including Fitzgerald (obviously), Burke and Walshe, a reminder that many of those accompanying the first FitzGerald were Welsh.

In the Inner castle the guide tells us about Norman surnames, Desmond Castle, Adare;

All went well until their Tudor cousins gained the English throne. Ireland had remained largely medieval and Elizabeth I wanted to take control and make changes; she was also a protestant. The Desmonds mounted two rebellions against the queen, the first 1569-1573 and the second 1579-83. Neither ended well for the Desmonds, nor for the people of their Earldom.

County Kerry

Listowel

From Adare we could have followed the N21 straight to Tralee, but instead struck out on minor roads towards Listowel, a small town with a castle - and we wanted to work those Heritage Cards.

At some point County Limerick became County Kerry and then we were on the N69 queueing into Listowel. We squeezed into the last available parking space in the square.

Listowel Square

Listowel Castle

The town grew up beside a ford on the River Feale and Listowel Castle sits on a bank above the river. Most of the existing stonework is 15th century, though building started 200 year earlier. A stronghold of the FitzMaurices (a branch of the FitzGeralds) it had four towers of which two survive linked by a wall and an arch. Listowel held out long after the Desmond Rebellions were put down but was taken in 1600 when it was undermined during a short siege. The Castle then progressively fell further into disrepair until restoration in 2005.

Listowel Castle

A pleasant and enthusiastic young woman gave us a guided tour and had another go at explaining the complexities of Munster’s medieval history. The narrow stairs and small rooms mean Irish Heritage limit tour parties to 12 and warn that in the summer visitors may have to wait. On a damp Thursday at the height of the season we had the place to ourselves.

There is little inside the castle but there is a good view across the River Feale to Listowel Racecourse.

The River Feale and Listowel Racecourse

Literary Listowel

I confess we were ignorant of Listowel’s claim to be the literary capital of Ireland (though given the number of Irish writers ‘one of the literary capitals’ might be more accurate) but beside the castle and the square is The Seanchaí Kerry Writer’s Museum (a seanchaí is a traditional storyteller). I also know little of playwright and novelist John B. Keane, and I am sure that is my loss, who lived most of his life in Listowel. He wrote…

"Beautiful Listowel, serenaded night and day by the gentle waters of the River Feale.
Listowel where it is easier to write than not to write,
Where first love never dies, and the tall streets hide the loveliness…”

I have little idea how Listowel looked when Keane died in 2002, and even less about the town in his youth in the 1940s and 50s, but today it is blighted by traffic. Driving through is a frustrating stop/start business, and traffic dominated our photographs. It could again be the town of Keane’s encomium – but not until it has a by-pass.

Listowel Traffic

Tralee and an Italian Restaurant

Tralee

Leaving Listowel we drove the last 26km to Tralee, Kerry’s county town. Irish place names are a constant delight and Tralee is among the best. Sadly it does not always follow that a charmingly named town is itself charming. Tralee is not unpleasant and the people are welcoming, but it is a working town marooned in a tourist area, like Stroud in the Cotswolds. It is, though well placed for visiting the rest of Kerry.

That evening we walked to an Italian restaurant recommended by our hotel's receptionist. It was full - about a 90 minute wait they said. We left but soon stumbled on Il Pomodoro, another Italian restaurant closer to the hotel with a single empty table. The young woman waiting on that table sounded genuinely Italian, and we learned as the evening went on, that she was the owner, or at least the manager. She waited on table, organised the other staff, gave instructions in the kitchen and kept up a breathless work rate yet managed to be smiling and pleasant. Our fettucine, Lynne’s with goat’s cheese mine with chicken, was good when it eventually arrived. Everybody was working flat out so we did not complain about the wait and anyway we had a pleasing bottle of Umbrian white to amuse us.

From our experiences in Ennis and Tralee it appears there are opportunities for anyone thinking off opening a restaurant in the west of Ireland; there are more people wishing to eat out than places to accommodate them.

The West of Ireland

Part 1: Galway

Part 2: Connemara in the Mist and the Rain

Part 3: Loam, Fine Dining in Galway

Part 4: Athenry, The Burren and Ennis

Part 5: Adare, Listowel and on to Tralee
Part 6: The Dingle Peninsula
Part 7: Killarney to Kenmare
Part 8: Ardfert, Flying-boats and Limerick