When last we found ourselves in Ireland we opted to tour the Ring of Dingle (a drive along the Dingle peninsula). The more famous, and more often used, drive is the Ring of Kerry.
This trip we decided to check the Ring of Kerry off the list. The weather wasn’t ideal, but it was very Irish: overcast and slightly drizzly. But that didn’t stop us!
We stopped at a little town and saw a very pretty river:
Look at us! We are so cute:
While the weather wasn’t clear, it was evocative. We visited 4 ring forts in one day (because of course we did), and it was very cool to see them like this:
That’s Staigue Fort.
A ring fort (or stone fort) is generally shaped like a ring with steps in the walls so you can climb up. I found myself at the top of a wall before really thinking about what I was doing. I had a moment, while standing above the ground, where I realized this is something I totally wouldn’t have done when I was heavier. That was a cool moment, and then I took this photo:
We then visited the home of Daniel O’Connell who I had never heard of before, but here’s a big deal in Ireland. He fought for, and got, equality for Roman Catholics in Ireland:
We had just missed joining the tour, so we walked around the house ourselves. It wasn’t all that illuminating I must say, as the signage in the rooms wasn’t great (though they had a good movie about the man and his times, which was helpful).
The grounds of the house were lovely, and featured our second ring fort of the day:
Despite the weather, the views were very nice:
We even found a little beach:
After I took that picture a tour bus (one of the only tour buses we encountered) disgorged 50 people who stood in front of me, took a few pictures, and then got back on the bus.
I thought this picture came out well:
Is that another ring fort in the distance? Yes!
The ring fort above is located is a 5 minute walk from the road, and next to another ring fort that is next next to the road. Most folks just go to the closer one, so we headed off to check out the more distant one. Some lambs checked us out along the way.
It had rained overnight, so the path to the ring fort was just mud. I decided to try to climb up anyway… and fell down. My pants got muddy, but I made it to the fort. Then we walked to the other one:
And you know I climbed the wall and took some pics:
We waved goodbye to the ring forts and started the 2 hour drive home via Killarney so we could do some shopping and eat some delicious fish and chips. If you want to see all the pictures I took, you know what to do.