County Kerry

Due to the inadequate portrayal of our weekend in County Kerry by the primary author, the rest of the Melchior clan has temporarily blog-jacked this site. This may become a more common occurrence if it continues to take until Thursday evening to report on the activities of the previous weekend. Don’t expect Joyce or Yeats, just the facts folks. Click on the photos to enlarge them!

We got an early start on Friday due to Theo’s short school week. I don’t think he has put in a full five day week since we arrived. We pulled Sam out early to hit the road; no one should drive the rural roads of Ireland at night. We arrived in Tralee at the “Grand Hotel” after our 3 hour drive - it’s like going to Naylon’s. The hotel had a three star rating and was quite honestly nicer than anything we have stayed in before. After consuming three large Irish breakfasts and one porridge we were off to explore the Dingle Peninsula.

Our first stop was pooh-poohed by our driver (something about going to the Netherlands later this Spring) - the largest windmill of its kind in Europe (21.3 meters high). The morning was beautiful so we stopped at a beach near the town of Camp. Theo found some razor clams and two full sea urchin shells, while Paul and Sam tossed the football around on the hard sand beach. We were very excited to see some stone ‘beehive’ huts, unfortunately our first stop was cut short by the gentleman in the ticket booth requiring two Euros each for us to go in his backyard and see the ancient ruins. Our patience paid off outside of Ballyferriter at the Gallurus Oratory, however. We ended our day at an unremarkable B&B in Killorglin.

The next morning we set off around the Ring of Kerry. Our destination for the day was Cahersiveen. We went directly to the Cahergal Fort. I saw a picture of it in one of the brochures we got at the Grand Hotel. The photo depicts a beautiful stone fort ruin filled with tourists. To our pleasant surprise, though, when we arrived the fort it was all ours. It will be interesting when we have to share our finds with tourists! It was an incredible site. The circular ring had small staircases up the sides of the walls with “cozy little benches” that Theo discovered at the top. You could walk up all sides and even the top of the ruin. Inside was a beehive structure that had lost its roof over the years. We read that it was inhabited by a family of wealth somewhere between 500 BC and 1000 AD.

We continued on to Waterville for a lunch break and a little “trinket” shopping. We ate at a wonderful pub “The Lobster”. We met the proprietor who hailed from New Jersey and had the laid-back Irish lifestyle down - it took us longer to get our bill paid and our take-out boxes than it did to order and eat. Our travels lead us to several wonderful spots for photos and a stretch. We are anxious to get back to the area as it is now our “favorite” part of Ireland.