Killarney Highlights

I (C senior) am writing this post in the middle of a thunderstorm here in Killarney. We have stayed in Killarney for the past four days, changing our plans yet again.

On the first day, we went walking in the Killarney National Park. We visited Ross Castle in the pouring rain and some hail.

The second day, we saw the Ring of Kerry. The picture  below really speaks for itself as to how awesome and beautiful the west coast of Ireland really is.

The last picture stop we made on the Ring of Kerry was called Ladies Point. When queen Victoria made a visit to Killarney, she decided to have a picnic at the place we now call Ladies Point. The morning of the picnic, she sent her ladies in waiting ahead of her to prepare the seating and eating area. The ladies went and set and prepared, but it was such a nice day that they decided to take a short break to enjoy the sunshine. However, the Queen came early. On finding that her picnic was not ready when she arrived, she chastised her ladies in waiting. Therefore the spot is not named after Her Majesty, but her ladies.

On the third day, we ventured off to find Muckross House. The weather was sunny, very rare in the past couple of days. It was about a 5k walk to Muckross Abbey along rock strewn paths by the lake.

Then, it was another 2k to the actual house. It started to rain pretty hard, but we were able to take refuge in a small gazebo.

To end our visit, we walked another 2k to Torc Waterfall in the pouring rain.

After leaving the waterfall, we realized that we were going to have to walk all the way back! (That would be 2k + 2k + 5k = 9k!) Our achy bodies were very thankful when we got back to the hostel.

On our last day in Killarney, we saw the town of Dingle and went around the Slea Head Loop on Dingle Peninsula. The Dingle Peninsula is part of the Gaeltacht region, meaning that they speak Irish (Gaelic) as their first language and then English second.

-C&C