Day 24

As we didn’t have too far to travel and we didn’t want to arrive before check in time, there was time for a look round Adare first. We have already seen quite a bit of the main and almost only, street from the car, as the traffic doesn’t tend to flow very quickly through the town. Adare is a very pleasant looking settlement, much of which is a nineteenth century estate village, with attractive thatched cottages, set out by the Earl of Dunraven. We found a free car park on the outskirts of town; possibly rather more outskirtsy than ideal. First stop was the heritage centre where we could have booked a guided tour if we’d had time. There was a small exhibition which rather gave the impression that it was no longer a priority. Here we learned that Adare Castle was built in 1220 and was owned , briefly, by Geoffrey de Marisco in the 1220s. Cromwell ordered the dismantling of the castle in 1657 and most of the village was destroyed. We wondered if this was the same Marisco family who owned Lundy Island. We had a quick look in Adare’s Catholic Church but the incense was a bit overpowering for a long stay; it was once part of Ireland’s only Trinitarian Monastery, founded in 1230. The aim of the Trinitarian Order, which originated in France, was to rescue those who had been taken hostage in the Holy Land during the Crusades. There is also an Augustinian Friary in Adare, founded in 1315 by John FitzThomas FitzGerald. It was known as the Black Abbey, from the colour of their habits.

We drove on to our penultimate campsite at Glenbeigh. En route there were numerous charity collectors in the middle of the road at junctions, roundabouts and traffic lights. We have also seen this elsewhere This did seem to be effective, if inordinately dangerous. I can’t believe the charity’s risk assessment takes account of this. The route took us through the beautiful Kerry countryside and the site is nestled at the foot of the mountains, close to the coast. There is more heavy rain forecast for the next week, We can only hope that the forecast is about as accurate as it has been for the past few days.

Day 25

This was the day that our luck with the weather finally ran out. Undaunted, we set off in mist and rain to err ‘view’ the scenery of the Dingle Peninsula, well in theory anyway. A clear sunny day would have been glorious but it could have been worse and we did see some spectacular views through the drizzle and cloud. There’s a Ring of Kerry and a Ring of Beara but no Ring of Dingle, probably because the Brandon Mountain gets in the way. Instead, there is more of a figure-of-eight that takes you round the Dingle Peninsula.

We started heading westwards along the south coast of the peninsula, dropping south of the N86 between Anascaul and Dingle, to remain as close to the coast as possible. The route we took is highly recommended, especially if you aren’t blessed with a rainy day when the wind was strong enough to make it difficult to stand up straight. It also requires a driver who isn’t fazed by single-track, twisty roads and who can reverse up the same when something comes in the opposite direction.

We paused for a short while in Dingle to see if there were any interesting fishing boats; there weren’t. Then round the westernmost point and back to Dingle before heading northwards between Brandon Mountain and Stradbally Mountain. Inevitably, this took us up and what goes up must come down, so down as well. Here we were warned that we should turn round if our vehicle was more than six foot wide. We were pretty sure the car was indeed more than six feet wide but things seemed to be coming the other way, so we pushed on. There was a scarily sheer drop to my left and not very far to the left either. On the right towered the granite cliffs, as the narrow road twisted back and forth and we were rewarded with the sun shining on the north coast. Despite the limitations of the weather, the Dingle Peninsula has edged into first place on my best scenery list.

The satnav was deliberately set to shortest route, rather than quickest, which meant that we did not travel on the N70 from Tralee to Castlemaine but on the road that passes through the Slieve Mish Mountains. It is definitely worth going this way if you are confident driving in the conditions mentioned above.

Next was a supermarket shop in what was probably the most inadequate supermarket imaginable. It began by us circling said supermarket looking for its car park, only to discover that there wasn’t one. We secured an on street parking space and then found a distinct lack of things that we were hoping to buy. To top it all, there was only one check out and we arrived with our modest basket full (it would have been less modest if they’d had what we wanted) just as someone began unloading €200 of shopping.