Killkenny, Cork, County Kerry and Ennis

Kilkenny
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Get set, it's long!

Things have been a bit of a rollercoaster, very up and down, since I left Dublin. First up I took the bus south and stayed in Kilkenny for two nights, and then in Cork for two nights. I didn't really have a lot of fun in either, as I didn't really meet many people and 10 weeks of travel fatigue hit me all at once. You don't notice most of the time because you are enjoying yourself so much, but living out of a backpack, sleeping on people's couches and in dorms with loads of other people who often snore, and being constantly on the move really wears you down. I was yearning for my own space and a bit of routine and normality, and by the time I got to Cork I was seriously contemplating chucking in the Ireland idea, catching the next vaguely affordable flight back to London, and returning some other time when I was more in the mood. But I had heard great things about Killarney, my next stop after Cork, so I stopped myself from doing anything rash until I got there at least, and as it turned out I'm glad that I did.

Blarney Castle
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Back to Kilkenny: it's a nice enough town, but I was just in the wrong mindframe. Visited the Castle there -- I'm a bit blase about them now, and the only thing that was really stunning was one long hall lined with portraits -- and the nearby Dunmore Caves, which were fairly underwhelming. We've got better ones at home (speaking of, I read somewhere a week or so ago that the Jenolan Caves in the Blue Mountains were recently discovered to be the oldest in the world. Who've thunk it?)

Cork: Stayed in a huge, anonymous, characterless hostel with grumpy staff and with the beds crammed ridiculously tight into little box rooms that resemble prison cells. Nasty. Cork is near the Blarney Castle and stone, which I thought I had better go see, as it's one of Ireland's big things to do, even though I was less than excited about yet another castle. Glad I did though -- this is my only fond memory of Cork -- because the castle is amazing, possibly the best one I've seen. The whole 'Kissing of the Blarney Stone' exercise is fairly absurd, though. I thought it would actually be a stone, but no, it's really a bit of the castle wall on the top level. It's meant to give you the gift of the gab, but it's more likely to give you a crook back. You have to lie down on a mat on the walkway, hold on to some railings, arch your back to lean your head backwards over a maybe four or five storey gap to kiss the bottom of the wall, while an guy holds on to you so you don't fall and you try not to think about how many other people's lips have been on that piece of wall and why it's strangely smooth and shiny. I did it, but I felt pretty stupid about it.

The view from Blarney Castle
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But enough whining, things changed when I got to Killarney, a fun little town in the centre of County Kerry, in the south west corner of Ireland. Kerry is picture-postcard Ireland: rolling green hills, small craggy, cloud-topped mountains and rugged coastlines. For the five nights I spent in Kerry it was mainly about communing with the elements for me (as well as drinking a few beers in the evenings -- stayed in a neat hostel called Neptunes and met a number of cool people, some of whom I hope to catch up with in Galway or London). From Killarney, two peninsulas strech out westwards, the Dingle Peninsula in the north and the Ring of Kerry in the south. I wanted to do the Ring of Kerry in a few days, so I took just a day tour out to Dingle. Thought it would be a groupd of young travellers, but it turned out to be just me, an American guy about my age, an a bunch of retirement age travellers, mostly American women (Ireland is full of middle-aged American tourists, for some reason). The coastlines out on the end of the peninsula are gorgeous, and the only thing I really missed by doing the day tour is a cruise of the harbour from Dingle itself to see Fungie the famous Dingle dolphin, which I wasn't too fussed about anyhow.

Dingle Peninsula
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Next day I hired a bike and took a ride around Lough Leane, the lake by Killarney. I missed the boat that cuts the ride in half, so had to go all the way around, which is at least a 40km ride, possibly up to about 55km. I'm not sure, but it was long and hard. The main reason for such and an excess of silliness is to go through the Gap of Dunloe, a high mountain pass that the circuit goes through. After a hard slog up one side of a mountain, you come across one of the most beautiful landscapes I have even seen. I can't describe it in any way that will do it justice, but it is a long, lush green valley dotted with large craggy rocks, with a winding stream and a windier pathway that criss-cross down its length (I have couple of photos that also do it no justice at all). I must confess that I zipped through it fairly quickly on the bike -- after the battle up the hill on the other side that winding downhill road was just too tempting -- but it was a stunning few minutes.

This is an Oratory, a perfectly preserved ancient stone church. It's mortarless, but because of how it's built, it's completely dry inside.
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Next day I headed out to the Ring of Kerry (the peninsula is solid right through -- it's named for the road that circles it), to stay in a dusty little town about a third of the way around the ring named Cahercivenn (Ky-ah-see-veen), which as I soon discovered was one of the less attractive towns on the Ring. Took a walk out to the nearby nearby ringforts -- remains of ancient circular fortified houses and (please try to feign surprise) the ruins of another castle. That part of Ireland is dotted with ancient ruins, from ringforts and castles to the remains of stone houses and simple marker stones. Many are just on the sid of the road, often on private land with sheep or cattle grazing around them. Picked up a few canine compains along the way -- one of them even followed me the whole 2km back into town and tried to come into the hostel.

Torc Waterfall, on Lough Leane
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Two days after riding the Lough Leane circuit, I decided for some reason that it would be a good idea to do another 40-odd km ride, this time around the Skellig circuit, a smaller ring road on the far end of the peninsula. Again, beautiful coastline, though it didn't wow me as much as Dingle had. (The really stunning parts of the Ring of Kerry are actually towards the base of the peninsula, on both the noerth and south side, which I only got to see from the bus). Stopped off along the way at Ballingskellig Priory, the ruins of an old monastic settlement, which, oddly, is now a graveyard, with many of the graves actually inside the still-standing wall of what once the monastry. Curiouser and curiouser.

Near Torc Waterfall
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Spent the second night out there in Caherdaniel on the south side, from where I had hoped to take a ferry out to the Skellig Islands, two rocky outcrops off the coast, the larger which also has the remains of an old monastry. Both a sancuraries for seabirds, including puffins, and the trip is meant to be fantastic. Unfortunately, they are dependant on the sea being calm -- which it wasn't -- to get out the, and I was told that the outlook for the next few days wasn't good either, so I had to give it a miss. A dissappointment, because it was the main reason I had wanted to go out to the Ring in the first place.

Lough Leane
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Three buses and six hours later, and I'm in Ennis, just north of Limerick, which I decided to give a miss as I was told it wasn't much chop. Certainly didn't look appealling for the 20 minutes I was there -- grey seemed to be the dominant colour. Ennis is a nice little town, if a little confusing -- it's a twisted network of narrow streets that I keep getting lost in. I don't think anyone had invented straight lines until about 200 years ago!

I've decided that I'm cutting my time in Ireland short, just heading northwards to Galway from here, then back to Dublin to fly to London in a week or so. Partly it's because I am, despite recent days, a little travel weary and really looking forward to setting myself up in London, but mostly it's because Ireland turned out to be a good deal more expensive than I expected, and I can't keep this up for too much longer. I'll definately have to come back and do the north some other time.