We had organised to stay with the Maloney’s in Newcastle West, a small town south of Limerick for a couple of nights. Our fight didn’t arrive until after 10pm so it was creeping up to midnight by the time we had picked up the hire car and walked through the Maloney’s front door. Nonetheless there were snacks, beer and of course some Jameson’s laid out for us while we introduced ourselves and discussed plans for sightseeing the next couple of days.
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After an enormous fry up the next morning courtesy of the one and only Kay Maloney, we set off for the Ring of Kerry for a spot of sightseeing. We stopped by Killarney, a beautiful, though slightly overly touristy town that marks the entrance to the Ring. Even so, there are a ridiculous number of old pubs and bars along with a nice castle that we were soon to discover looked pretty much the same as the other 3,427 castles in Ireland. As soon as we set off along the Kerry Road the heavens opened up and decided to stay like that for the rest of the day. It was about now that we got our first whiff of that ‘wet horse shit’ smell that seems to envelope the entire country whenever there is moisture around (which is a lot of the time). But we pushed on all the way to the Skellig Ring at the western tip of the peninsula checking out the many rained out vistas, as well as the Ballycarbery Castle and Cahergall Stone Fort. The castle was nice but pretty stock standard, however the stone fort was actually pretty impressive with the precision of the construction being a standout feature. That night we went out to the Maloney’s local pub for a couple of pints of Guinness where we met a couple of the locals, tried our hand at winning the local GAA lottery (unsuccessful) and talked anything and everything Irish that we could think of.
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The Dingle peninsula is just above the Ring of Kerry and we headed there ultimately with the aim of catching up with Dragey, a good mate from home. We drove up through Connor Pass, an incredibly wild section of Ireland, full of sketchy one lane roads with blind corners and stunning views to boot. At least there would’ve been if we could see more than 20m in front of us. Once at the top of Connor Pass we jumped out for a look only to be assaulted by rain coming up the cliff at us. This sort of rain renders your umbrella about as useful as an Englishman in a rugby match so we continued on through Dingle to the end of the peninsula. All of a sudden the rain and clouds parted and we were left with a cold but sunny afternoon to drive around the area. We saw the Dunbeg Promontory Fort (save your pennies) and went out to the westernmost beach on mainland Ireland at Coumeenole. Here the locals never seemed to bother learning much English and the local Irish language is still firmly entrenched, so much so that they don’t even bother with English writing on the road signs.
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We headed back to the one street town of Annascaul next and after a quick dip in the lake we caught up with Dragey at the South Pole Inn. Annascaul’s one and only claim to fame is that a bloke by the name of Tom Crean had 3 cracks at getting to the South Pole and never got there. But he did have some pretty hectic adventures on the way and the pub is dedicated to him and his story. Dragey was running a local B&B and hostel in Annascaul and he kindly put us up for the night and cooked us a delicious dinner. Then it was off to the local pub for a couple of pints. Inside we met John, John, John and Eileen. Eileen was a lovely lady, John 1 was normal, John 2 was called Johnny Bangers n Mash and was completely incoherent, and John 3 seemed pretty stock standard at first but quickly took a liking to Kylie then proceeded to get as drunk as Johnny Bangers n Mash but 10 times as creepy. After a big fry up in the morning including our first taste of black pudding (the jury is still out on that one), we said our goodbyes to Drage and headed off for Cork.
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We passed back through Killarney on our way to Cork the next day, checking out the Torc waterfall and stopping for a look at Ladies View which looks back down through the Killarney National Park. We took a roundabout route on our way to Cork going through Molls Gap, Kenmare, Ballylickey (had to include that) before stopping for lunch in Bantry.
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The road then took us along the south coast to Kinsale, a great little fishing village south of Cork. The town looked amazing so we decided to pull in here for the night rather than push on to Cork. Here we spent the night drinking Guinness and listening to an incredible local duo sing some live music while what seemed like half the state of Massachusetts did their best to talk over the top of them. Kinsale is definitely worth a look if you are ever down near Cork.
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The next morning we walked along the harbour out to Charles Fort. If you only have time for one old fort in Ireland then this would be the one to go to. It has been fully restored, and some of the barracks houses inside the fort have been renovated to house a couple of quality presentations detailing the times Ireland has been in conflict over the last 4 centuries (hint… a lot of times).
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We cruised through Cork and on to Blarney Castle, home of the famous Blarney Stone. Now if this blog appears to have been written by someone of great wit and intellect one can only presume that the Blarney Stone has indeed bestowed the gift of eloquence upon this humble writer. Although as time has told, I have just as much trouble forming words as I did before. But anyway, the castle and grounds are beautiful and well worth a visit and as it was October, there weren’t too many tourists around. This mercifully meant no line to kiss the stone and more importantly no old and/or fat tourists taking an eternity to walk up or down the narrow castle staircases.
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Kilkenney was our destination for the night so we made our way there via the Rock of Cashel. It was nearly closing time for entry to the castle plus half the castle seemed to be covered in scaffolding so we had a poke around the outside before checking out the interestingly named ‘Hore Abbey’, a derelict church in the middle of a nearby field. We poked around the ruins of the church, even finding John Butlers gravestone which would actually explain a lot about the crusty Australian folk singer. Kilkenney itself is a nice, if unspectacular town. The Kilkenney Castle is in working condition and is really quite stunning but castles were starting to wear off on us again by this stage.
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Ireland Part 1 – Oh it was Great Craic Limerick & Kerry We had organised to stay with the Maloney’s in Newcastle West, a small town south of Limerick for a couple of nights.
