Today’s Ring of Kerry experience went much better than yesterday’s! I decided to skip trying to find a breakfast place and instead walked down the street from my AirBnB to a place called Jack’s Bakery & Deli and grabbed a sandwich and chips, resolved to find a spot for a little picnic lunch. Then I drove straight through to Waterville to pick up where I left off, the drive went much quicker when I didn’t take any random detours! My first stop of the day was of course Loher Stone Fort, I thought about having my picnic there but I didn’t really see a good spot so I just looked around and took a few pictures.
My next planned stop was an overlook called Com an Chistie Ring of Kerry Lookout and Car Park. This ended up being the perfect spot for my lunch, it had a few picnic tales and an absolutely stunning view, and a man playing some tunes on the accordion, what more could you ask for?
After lunch I headed to a spot called “Wild Derrynane”, I knew from my research that there were some nice walking trails and a beach where people had taken pictures of dolphins. I was walking around looking for the beach, and the beach I found was a bit dried up, definitely no dolphins there, but I could hear the ocean, so I started walking towards the sound. The walk was gorgeous, but the ocean view was absolutely breathtaking! I didn’t have enough time to walk all the way down to the beach, but I would definitely like to come back to Derrynane some day!
Next I went to a city called Sneem to see The Pyramids (aka The Way the Fairies Went) which is an art installation that was built in 1989 to celebrate Sneem winning the Tidy Towns Award in 1987. While it isn’t an ancient ruin it was still pretty neat and worth the stop!
I stopped at a few more scenic viewpoints on the way to my last planned stop, Muckross Abbey. I will never get tired of the beautiful landscapes this county has to offer! I’ve developed a mantra when I’m out taking pictures- it’s “don’t forget to turn around” because no matter what angle you look in there’s always something beautiful, so when I’m exploring a stone fort or a castle ruin, I always try to make sure to look around so I don’t miss a single thing!
The last stop I chose to make on the Ring of Kerry is Muckross Abbey. This was probably my favorite stop along the Ring. The ruins are pretty well preserved and you can explore three stories of it via stone steps. I walked around the entire Abbey and everything that remains is completely beautiful. I also found it interesting that people are still being buried in the cemetery surrounding the Abbey.
Following the Abbey I headed towards the last city on the Ring, Killarney. I decided to walk around bit and then grab some dinner before heading back to Killorglin. I found a few shops and then ended up at a place called The Laurels for dinner. I had a chicken and bacon salad and an order of onion rings. Onion rings aren’t usually my first choice, but when Gina and I went to a restaurant in Dublin and my steak came with onion rings they were fantastic so I’ve been craving them ever since. These were a little more greasy than the ones in Dublin, but they were beer battered and tempura fried so they were delicious! I headed back to my AirBnB for my last night there! Heading to Dingle and then Limerick tomorrow!