The Dingle Peninsula

Friday, May 18, 2012--Dingle and Its Peninsula

It was another day for exploring the rugged mountains and coastline of Ireland.  This time, it was the Dingle Peninsula north of where we were yesterday.  We drove another 215 km (135 miles) twisting and winding along the coast and through the mountains.  Again, we were "Lucky Lads" with the weather vacillating between cloudy and the sun peeking out.  A little rain finally occurred, but it was late in the day as we were driving back to Killarney.  By the time we were home, we were able to continue walking around town without worrying about umbrellas.  In fact, our umbrellas have been out only twice on the trip so far--for about 5 minutes in Belfast on the first day and about 1 minute in Dublin.

Dingle is another small, quaint town with very colorful buildings.  It is known for two things:  1) It's abundance of live Irish music at its pubs, and 2) Its friendly dolphin Fungie.  We spent time exploring the town, but we spent most of our time touring the countryside.  Along the way, we stopped at the most beautiful sight we have seen so far in all of Ireland.  It happens to be the beach area that served as the location for the film Ryan's Daughter.  Conor Pass on the Dingle Peninsula was the most dramatic we have crossed here so far, too--very narrow with wonderful views.

Tomorrow, we leave this area and head to Galway.  It will be a long day of driving.