May 31 - Killarney and the Ring of Kerry

This morning we headed out of town to see the famous Ring of Kerry.  The ring is actually a peninsula extending to the west south west of Killarney.  It is bounded on the north by the Bay of  Dingle and the Dingle Peninsula and on the south by the Kenmare Bay.  There is a loop road that takes you around the peninsula and that is what we traveled on with several stops along the way. First there is this stump of a round tower, that means at some point in the far past a monastery was on this site.

As you head out of town you get these great views of Lough Leane which is just to the west of Killarney.

Once you get past the lake, the interior of the peninsula is fields, bogs and small lakes.  Here you can see the mountains on the south side of the peninsula.

There are a number of small rivers feeding or draining the lakes.

At one point where we stopped for some photographs there was this gentleman with a donkey, goat and small dog.  The idea was that tourists could take photos of the animals ans then leave him an appropriate tip.

And did I mention previously that there are wild rhododendrons growing all over the place.  They're always purple.

Here we are at the end of the peninsula and what you are seeing across the bay is the Dingle Peninsula and the Blasket islands.

Nice little beach.

Nice digs.

This is the end of the peninsula and you are seeing the Skellig islands in the distance.  The monks built a monastery on one of them, Skellig Michael, in about the 6th or 7th century.  The monks really liked their privacy.  Unfortunately the Vikings eventually found them and sacked the monastery

This is the clubhouse for the Waterville Golf Club.  Must be a challenging course as the wind was blowing hard and scattered showers were moving thru the area.

Somebody got married and came to the golf club for their honeymoon.

Here is a view across Kenmare Bay with Cod's Head and in the background Dursey Island.

Some beautiful locations as long as you don't mind being a long way from anywhere.

Here is where we stopped for lunch in the town of Sneem.

And here is the River Sneem passing thru town.

As we return on the south side of the peninsula we pass on the south side of the lakes just to the west of Killarney.

We're back in Killarney now and going for a jaunting cart ride through the National Park.  Here we are in the cart.

This is what they look like.

 And we are on our way thru the streets of central Killarney on the way to the park

Here we are heading down one of the trails in the park.

Here is another view of Lough Leane.

 
There are deer in the park and they are used to visitors.

This is the cart we rode in.

This evening we are again going to the Muckross Plantation, but this time to the farm for a view of what farm life was like in the 1930s.  There were ducks.

And old farm equipment.

Here our host is lecturing us on what it was like back then.  This farm is operated just like in would have been in the early 20th century.

Including the use of Clydesdales for the heavy work.

This lady is showing us how they made butter for use on the farm in a tabletop butter churn.  Today the only way to buy one of these butter churns is to order it from the Amish in Pennsylvania as they are the only ones who still use them.

Here we are at dinner.  Main course was Irish stew made with lamb.

After dinner we were entertained by a two piece group playing typical Irish instruments.  In this first video the woman is playing an Irish accordion while the guy plays the Irish bagpipes.

You will notice that the bagpipe player is sitting down and he has nothing in his mouth.  That is because you must play these pipes while they are laying across your lap, so no marching.  Also the air for playing them comes from a bellows that the player has between his elbow and his body and as he is playing you can see him pumping the bellows.  The players left arm is very busy as he has to pump the bellows with his elbow, play the drones with the side of his hand and finger the pipe as well.  In this second video the woman is playing a classical Irish drum called a bodhrán.

In this last video the woman is singing an Irish song accompanied by her partner on Guitar.

Tomorrow we leave Killarney and drive along the south coast passing thru Cork and Waterford and ending up in Kilkenny.