Ireland Day 10, Kinsale, across “Sheep Mountain”, through the Ring of Kerry, to Killarney
Kinsale is a very beautiful, and it reminded me of the affluent beaches cities back in the US. The hillsides surrounding the city are just miles and miles of rolling green farmland. Seeing as we had already seen Ireland by plane, train, bus, and automobile, this seemed like the perfect place to take to the water.
After our boat trip around the bay, we headed off in for the Ring of Kerry – a stretch of road that runs all along the coast of the southern peninsula of Kerry County. Enjoying the remarkable views, we were suddenly informed by our GPS that we had missed our turn and we should immediately turn around and make a left. Trusting that it knew better than us, we turned back around, made the left, and headed up what seemed to be a very random and thin little road.
The thin road soon turned into an extremely winding and even thinner road – which seemed to be heading straight up into the surrounding mountains.
It was about a third of the way up that the asphalt turned to gravel and the mountainside filled with sheep and goats.
The higher up we drove, the more clear it became that nobody else drives on this road – except maybe the local shepherd.
The view from the top of the mountain, amid the freezing cold rain and wind, was a stunning landscape. It wasn’t really what we had in mind when we set out for our drive along the coast, but it was truly an “only in Ireland” life experience. I’m fairly confident that the GPS was having a bit of a laugh at it set us up and over what we could only deem “sheep mountain.”
After our unexpected mountain pass, we rejoined the sunny drive along the north coast of the Ring of Kerry.
Our final destination for the night was in Killarney. We found another great local pub with traditional entertainment including bagpipe, fiddle, flute, and banjo – unfortunately, I missed half the show to make a call back to the office and explain something about Facebook – but all the same, it was great day of traveling.
