Overnight to Dingle Peninsula

We sent our visitors in to Dublin for the day on Tuesday (July 12) while we caught up on rest and relaxation, laundry and planning tasks.  There is a dryer in the house but it is not for drying the clothes, just for fluffing them after they are dry.  We are still puzzling a bit over this arrangement.

We had a fabulous dinner (if I do say so myself) (pork loin on the BBQ) at home that evening in our lovely dining room. 

We had to clear off a few computers to make room to eat.

Wednesday morning we got an early start for an overnight trip out to the western coast again to explore the lovely Dingle Coast.  We had made reservations at a B&B in the heart of the little town of Dingle.  We stopped a few times on the way there, as we were somewhat crowded with 5 in the car, but the ride was not unpleasant and the countryside was lovely.

Lots of interesting rock walls everywhere. It is amazing that they could "reclaim" the land from the stones to create fields and pastures.  We have seen relatively few plowed/planted fields.  It is mostly pasture area for sheep and cows with a few goats and horses thrown in.

Our first real view of the sea.

Patchwork fields.

Our first view of thatch roofs. These are not common anymore but very quaint.  Apparently it is hard to find craftsmen able to make them these days, so they are expensive.

Below are pictures of a particular elaborate thatch.  We actually turned around to go back and take pictures of it.

We arrived at Dingle around 2:30 and were very pleased with our choice of B&B.  We could park right on the street in front.  The B&B was on the top floor over the Travel Agency. The proprietor recommended we do the drive around the peninsula that day since the weather was spectacular and you never know about tomorrow, but we had been in the car long enough for one day so we risked it.

 Dingle is a small town but really lovely. It is located on a large, protected harbor and is still primarily a fishing village although it is overrun with tourists in the summer months.

The buildings are painted all sorts of lovely colors thanks to the "tidy town" initiative in Ireland a few years ago.

We spent the afternoon wandering around, checking out all the lovely shops (pricey), eating ice cream and taking pictures.  Lyn's mother and father always treat the travel group to a special dinner, so we choose The Half Door just a few steps from our B&B.  We are glad we took that suggestion from our B&B proprietor. We had a really, really good meal.  Jon and I had roasted lamb shank - the best lamb either of us had ever had.  Most of us were too stuffed and exhausted to do the pub crawl we had planned for after dinner - Jon wasn't.

The next morning we had a good Irish breakfast (eggs, sausage, bacon, toast, porridge, fruit) which included traditional blood pudding which everyone except me tasted.   Then we headed out to make the 30 km drive around the peninsula.  When we started off it was raining (and we were kicking ourselves a bit for not doing the drive the day before) but within a half an hour the sun came out and it was a lovely day.  We expected it to take about two hours with many stops but we ended up spending almost 4 hours at it.  The views were breathe-taking and we lingered at many of them, climbing out on the occasional cliff.

The peninsula has been inhabited since prehistoric times and there are all sorts of ruins left to explore, but the best part was the views.  Below are a few selected pictures (we took hundreds)

This was weird...sheep jumping off our pathway back into their enclosure.

Pre-Historic and Iron Age fortress excavated in the 1970s.

The coastline is very, very rugged.

We all totally shocked when we came upon several gorgeous beaches with lovely light blue water.  No way did any of us picture Ireland and the North Atlantic like this!

The beach was pretty amazing but this picture below depicts my favorite spot.  The picture doesn't really do it justice.

We headed back to Dublin after lunch at a visitor's center, stopping for breaks and eventually for a terrific dinner in Nenagh (pronounced "Nina") just on the Dublin side of Limerick.  I just can't say enough about how good the food is (or how expensive!)