Friday, January 3, 2014

Ireland Picture Post #7: Dingle and Slea Head Drive

These pictures are from Day 9 Part 1 and Part 2, where we gathered up some picnicking supplies at the behest of our B&B hosts, and then set off on the scenic drive along the Slea Head peninsula.

---

Peeking into the back of a bakery in Dingle town



A perfect example of old and new coexisting in harmony - an old stone archway nestled between the other buildings in town.

Inside the "Little Cheese Shop" in Dingle, where we got olives, cheese, salami, and chocolates for our day trip.




We passed by An Canteen, the excellent restaurant where we ate on our first night in Dingle.
  
Then we were off - on our way along the Slea head peninsula!




Sheep grazed outside the famine cottages
Exterior of a thatched-roof famine cottage

Creepy famine cottage mannequins were not worth the admission cost to see.  


However, the view from up the hill was absolutely lovely

The goat on the right was totally zonked out

 

We made friends with a donkey


The "Sleeping Giant" off in the distance - his face is on the right, his belly on the left.


Religious statue at the end of the peninsula

  
Gallarus Oratory - believed to be an early Christian church, dating between the 8th and 12th centuries











Many fuchsia grow outside along the path to the Oratory

Next we visited the ruins of Kilmalkedar, home of an Ogham (alphabet) stone


The Kilmalkedar Ogham stone

Heading back to Dingle, we wandered the town a bit

That evening after dinner, we revisited our favorite ice cream shop - Murphy's

Irish Brown Bread ice cream will forever have a place in my heart
It soon got dark, and we looked for a place to warm up 

Our wanderings led us to the famous Dick Mack's pub

Inside the pub, we grabbed a pint and settled in to listen to that night's trad music, including a fiddle, a banjo, and a singer


7 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting these! I've followed your blog since the beginning and I check in every so often to see updates :) I'm going to Ireland in April for my honeymoon and I can't wait!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hurray, thanks for checking in. April is coming up so fast - I hope you have a lovely time in Ireland. :)

      Delete
  2. Hi Kimberly,

    I'm so happy I found your blog! My husband and I are putting the finishing touches on our 11 day self drive Ireland trip for next month. We still have a lot of lodging to book.

    Am I missing something, or did your blog stop after Day 9? i don't see the rest of the days!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Meegan, thanks so much for stopping by. How exciting that you guys are going on a trip soon!

      You aren't missing anything; I'm just really behind on posting updates to the blog. I've got a big backlog of notes and photos to get through. If you have any specific questions, though, I'm happy to answer them for you!

      Thanks again for reading. :)

      Delete
  3. Thanks for responding so quickly! I just devoured most of your posts. From your hotel list, it looks like you drove from Dingle back east and up to Dublin. No overnights near Killarney?

    Our trip is pretty much the same as yours up to Doolin: Dublin, drive to Galway, onward to Doolin, then Dingle, then we were going to spend a few nights around Killarney before dropping off the car and catching a train back to Dublin.

    I did have some questions for you, if you have time to answer at some point. I would sooo appreciate it. Like you, I've been killing myself on the research for this trip, paranoid that I'm going to miss something, and I should probably just relax and play it more by ear, but alas....

    >> We have two nights in Galway. We were thinking we could only fit in one of these two: a day trip to Connemara/Kylemore OR a day trip to Inishmore. Weather permitting: Which would you recommend?

    >> We were planning to drive from Doolin to Dingle via Limerick, and stop at Bunratty. Do you recommend taking the ferry instead?

    >> Do you recommend at least two overnights in each place? We wanted to try to get away with just three nights split between Doolin and Dingle. How would you allocate?

    >> NO Killarney? That scares me. :) We were allocating four days in that area! Biking the Gap. Day trip to Skellig Michael. Hiking the Park...

    Anyway, we’re in our early thirties, from Boston, first time Ireland trip. Like you, looking for a B&B experience even though we’ve never had one. Sprinkling in Hostels and maybe one Luxury stay. Looking for a good pub every night w/ craig. Good local food, especially seafood. And some driving, biking, hiking, riding, eating, eating, eating, drinking, drinking. (general exhaustion for 2 weeks)

    Any tips/recommendations you have are appreciated. Thanks in advance. I'll be following your blog from now on :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Uh oh, my short little response to your comment turned into a massive essay! I ended up turning it into a post- check it out here:

      http://sixteendaysinireland.blogspot.com/2014/03/q-2-how-to-allocate-time-between-dingle.html

      Definitely let me know if you have any more questions, and I hope this helps (as opposed to adding further agony to your planning process).

      I think I mention this there, too, but I'm sure I left something out. I'll follow up in comments or edits to that post if I remember anything. :)

      Delete
    2. Also, I thought Rick Steves had an itinerary that recommends how many days to spend in each place, but I can't find it on the site anymore. This is the closest thing: http://www.ricksteves.com/europe/ireland/itinerary

      I'll see if I can dig it up for you.

      Delete