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

West of Ireland (4): Athenry, The Burren and Ennis

Several Medieval Fortifications, a Huge Limestone Pavement and a Sculpture Trail

Ireland

County Galway

Like Caesar’s Gaul, County Galway has three parts. To the west is Connemara, the land of mountains and bogs and, yesterday at least, semi-perpetual drizzle; in the narrow waist where the county is pinched by Loughh Corrib is the City of Galway itself and to the east, by far the largest part, is a green plain.

Athenry

Athenry is a small town/large village 20km east of Galway. I had not heard of it before Irish rugby crowds took to singing ‘The Fields of Athenry’ and if I had, I would probably have pronounced it stressing the first syllable and with a final ‘-ree’ as in ‘Henry’ instead of evenly stressed Ath-en-rye. The song, written in the 1970s by Pete St John is either a dreary ditty about the Irish Famine or one of those haunting, wistful Irish melodies that once heard cannot be forgotten – or both. Judge for yourself, Paddy Reilly and the Dubliners* sing it on YouTube here.

County Galway, Athenry, Kinvarra - the morning's journey

‘Low lie the fields of Athenry’ the chorus goes, and indeed they do - this is flat lowland farming country, not as picturesque as Connemara, but a much easier place to make a living. And, of course, an influx of tourists makes that living even easier; the song has certainly helped, but Athenry is also a fine place for connoisseurs of old stonework.

It can a grey dour looking place on a dour grey day…

Athernry clustered round St Mary's Church

…but the market square, which is by no means square, has the only market cross still in situ in Ireland, though all that remains is the badly damaged 15th century stump.

The Market Cross, Market Square, Atherny

Most of the 14th century town wall still stands, as do several towers and the North Gate which is busy advertising Galway’s bid to be European City of Culture in 2020.

North Gate, Athenry, The banner is in English on the other side, that's how I know what it says

The Priory of SS Peter and Paul, Athenry

The Priory of SS Peter and Paul is of similar vintage though it is not in good condition. Having limped on after Henry VIII’s Reformation it was finally destroyed by Cromwellian forces in the 1650s.

Priory of SS Peter and Paul, Athenry

Athenry Castle

Most impressive of all, and even older is Athenry’s castle, built by Meyler de Bermingham sometime before 1240. Part of the surrounding wall survives…

Tower and external wall, Athenry Castle

...and the forbidding, almost windowless keep is largely intact.

Keep, Athenry Castle

There is a little decoration on the arch over the doorway, but these places were not built to be welcoming…

Decoration on the door arch, Athenry Castle

…though almost 800 years later possessing an Irish Heritage Card will guarantee that you are greeted by a smiling face. The interior, cleaned up and restored, is much pleasanter, though it must have been cold living here.

Interior, Athenry Castle

Kinvarra

Having zigged east to Athenry, we zagged south west along a series of minor roads to the coast at Kinvarra (sometimes Kinvara).

Approaching the village we passed Dunguaire Castle a sixteenth century tower house and a stronghold of the O’Hynes. The castle had plenty of visitors, but having just come from Athenry Castle we left it for another time.

Dunguaire Castle across the water from Kinvarra dock

We parked by the dock in Kinvarra. It was once a thriving port exporting grain, but the famine of the 1840s all but destroyed the town and it is only in the last decades that the population has edged back above 1,000.

Kinvarra Harbour

Kinvarra has a music festival in May and the Meeting of the Boats in August which features hooker racing. Hooker racing, despite what some readers might imagine, is a respectable pastime; Galway hookers are the traditional red sailed boats of Galway Bay which feature prominently on the county crest - see the top of the page.

I wondered if the Fairy Queen in my picture of Dunguaire Castle was a Galway hooker. After 20 minutes googling I learned that it was originally a Loch Fyne skiff, built 1926 in Fraserburgh, North East Scotland, and now re-rigged as a gaff cutter, making it very like, though not quite, a Galway hooker.

There are words in that paragraph I do not understand, but I pass it on in good faith.

Kinvarra

Kinvarra is a pretty village and we had a stroll and a coffee before driving on into County Clare through Ballyvaughan to Newtown Castle on the edge of the limestone district known as The Burren.

South into County Clare

Newtown Castle

County Clare

Newtown Castle was not easy to find. Leaving the main road we drove through parkland surrounding the Burren College of Art - visitors are welcome though it felt like trespassing.

The castle (or, more properly, tower) was built in the 16th century for the O’Brien clan. There are 3,000 tower houses in Ireland of which only 30 are round and of these only Newtown has a pyramidical base. The tower was fully equipped to defend itself with arrow slits, gun loops and a murder hole – a trap door above the main entrance through which flower petals, animal dung or boiling oil could be dropped, depending on how welcome the visitors were.

Newtown Tower, near Ballyvaughan

The tower was restored in 1993-4 for use by the newly opened Burren College of Art and sits on the edge of the small, somewhat isolated campus. We climbed to the top where a gallery below the impressive new wooden roof provides exhibition space for the students.

The roof, Newtown Tower, near Ballyvaughan

The castle passed to the O’Loghlens; in 1838 it was inhabited by Charles O’Loghlen, 'King of the Burren’, and at the end of the century by Peter O’Loghlen who more modestly styled himself 'Prince of the Burren'. The surrounding 2,800ha was part of the Buckingham Estate until 1848 when it was sold after the spectacular bankruptcy of the splendidly over-named Richard Plantagenet Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos. He has featured in those blog before as the last member of the Temple family, four generations earlier the richest in England, to own Stowe House near Buckingham.

Richard Temple-......Grenville, Portrait by Richard James Lane (filched from Wikipedia)

We returned to Ballyvaughan for lunch – a sandwich and a cup of tea – and thus fortified headed into The Burren.

The Burren

The Burren, from the Irish Boireann meaning ‘great rock’, is a roughly defined area (250-300km²) of karst landscape in the uplands of County Clare. The Burren National Park occupies only a 15km² corner in the south east of the region.

About 60% of it is covered with limestone pavements. It is a landscape I am familiar with from the Yorkshire Dales and limestone country further west, occasional outbreaks in South Wales and from the Pelješac peninsula in Croatia, but the Burren has by far the largest limestone pavements I have ever seen.

Limestone pavements stretching away into the distance, The Burren

Poulnabrone Dolmen

It is poor country for farming, but the earliest inhabitants spotted its value for monumental structures. Some 70 megalithic tombs are dotted about the Burren; we could not find the Gleninsheen Wedge Tomb, but the Poulnabrone Dolmen, 8km from Ballyvaughan is well signed, near the road and has a large car park – with 200,000 visitors annually it needs it!

Poulnabrone Dolmen, The Burren

In 1985, the disassembling of the dolmen to repair a crack in one of the portal stones provided an opportunity for excavations. The remains of 33 individuals and their personal items were discovered, carbon dating suggested they were buried between 3,800 and 3,200BC.

Poulnabrone Dolmen, The Burren

Catherconnel Stone Fort

A kilometre further on is the Caherconnell Stone Fort, one of the best preserved stone ring forts in Ireland. The drystone circle has a diameter of 43m and the walls are 3m thick and 3m high, though loose stones suggest they may have been a metre higher. What surprised us was that despite there being the post holes of a Neolithic dwelling nearby, the ring fort was built in the 10th century and was occupied until the 17th. The Norman invasion never quite reached O’Loghlen country and the people continued living a medieval life into what is normally regarded as early modern times.

Inside Caherconnell Stone Fort

The stone fort hosts archaeological summer schools and while some students were digging just outside the main circle...

Archaelogical workers, Caherconell Stone Fort, The Burren

…. others did the less glamourous sieving and spraying.

The spraying and sieving has to be done, too, Caherconell Stone Fort, The Burren

Ennis

Ennis

We reached Ennis in late afternoon. With just 25,000 inhabitants it is mildly surprising that Ennis is County Clare’s largest population centre by far, but even more surprising, it is Ireland’s 11th biggest city.

Ennis Sculpture Trail

We had a little difficulty finding our way into the centre which retains its medieval road plan and a little more leaving it to reach our B&B. After freshening up and armed with our friendly landlady’s recommendations for dinner we walked back into the centre. Ennis is proud of its sculpture trail and we passed a pensive soldier on the wall of the former barracks….

Soldier outside the barracks, Ennis

…hands outside the cathedral…

Hands outside the Cathedral of SS Peter and Paul, Ennis

…and farm workers on a roundabout.

Farm workers on a roundabout, Ennis

O’Connell Street is narrow but colourful with hanging baskets and painted façades. It terminates in a square where Daniel O’Connell has balanced on top of a Doric column since 1867. The ‘Great Liberator’ who also has a statue in Dublin in the street named after him, was a Dublin MP in the British House of Commons from 1836-41 but before that he had been MP for Clare. I took my picture facing the other way, so you will have to imagine the monument (it looks just like you think it would).

O'Connell Street, Ennis

Brogan’s was ram-packed. Unwilling to wait an hour for a table, we walked up to The Old Ground, an even bigger pub and apparently even more crowded but we were warmly greeted, asked to have a drink at the bar and told a table would be ready in ten minutes. We never believed ‘ten minutes’ but the room was being worked by an expert who knew the state of every table and remembered the faces of those waiting and the order in which they had arrived. It was an impressive performance and if it took thirty, rather than ten minutes it mattered little as we were watching hurling on the television. It is not an easy game for the uninitiated, but is full of breathlessly paced crash bang action.

Once seated, the service was efficient. My pork with black pudding, red onion gravy and spring onion mash was hearty Irish fare, and I was ready for it by then. Lynne enjoyed her quiche and chips.

By the time we had finished, the pressure on tables had eased, a band was playing traditional music and though full of food and Guinness we felt little desire to leave. I have never been a fan of Irish whiskey, but when in Ireland….. A glass of Jameson’s slipped down a treat – my opinion might need reassessing so more research is needed.

28/07/16

We remained in Ennis for the first half of the morning, strolling to the town centre and along the River Fergus until the friary opened at 10.00 – we were determined to turn a profit on our Heritage Cards.

Lynne by the River Fergus, Ennis

Ennis Friary

Ennis Franciscan Friary dates from the 1240s and, like much else locally, was founded by the O’Briens. After the suppression of the monasteries it was put to other uses and is now in part a ruin.

Ennis Friary

The best carvings are in the restored section where the 15th century canopy tomb of the MacMahon clan…

Canopy tomb, Ennis Friary

…and Christ’s Pity, both carved in the hard local limestone, are preserved from the elements. The Christ’s Pity or Ecce Homo shows Christ bound and surrounded by the accoutrements of crucifixion.

Ecce Homo, Ennis Friary

And finally….

Post box, Ennis

…we have seen British-style post boxes all over the world in places where once there was British influence, but this is not ‘British-style’ this is the real thing It still bears the Royal Mail crown and the EviiR logo, dating it to the reign of Edward VII, 1901-10. The once red box has, of course, been sanitised by a coat of green paint.

*You might like to search for the version by Serbian band Orthodox Celts. It is worse than Frank Sinatra’s On the Road to Mandalay, (blog post here) that was the right singer with the wrong song, this is simply wrong.

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