Skellig Michael--the one that got away. We badly wanted to sail seven miles out into the Atlantic Ocean to see the isolated island that monks inhabited from the 6th until the 12th century. It was not to be. We checked with tour companies day after day, but it was too rainy or the water was too rough. We'll come back.
We did find other charming spots on the Ring of Kerry, near our condo. We wandered around Caherciveen, whose 30,000 population before the Potato Famine has shrunk to 1300.
The sights included Tom's Tavern...
O'Connell Timber Merchant...
Kerry Fish...
O'Shea Undertaker...
and Craineen's...
with flyers attached to the molding proclaiming, "It's alive inside." There were omnipresent ads for lotto.
There was also a cathedral with what looked like dollar signs on a gravestone in its cemetery...
and some evocative views of the town from across the river.
We visited the nearby ruins of Ballycarbery Castle, built in the 1500s by the McCarthy chieftains...
and we hiked to Cahergall, a stone ring fort dating from the 10th century.
I also took lots of cow pictures...
and pictures of the beautiful countryside.
The Ring had stunning landscapes up to the mountains and down to the sea.
We also stopped at the Kerry Bog Village Museum, showing life as it was lived in Kerry in the 1700s.
Peat was piled next to a house made of stones and thatch.
Inside were whitewashed walls, a loft for children to sleep in, and a bicycle for transportation.
"Bog ponies" were identified as a special breed.
3 comments:
What an interesting place. It seems very intriguing in an "off the beaten path" sort of way. The monk's island does look like worth a trip back!
Looks like fun.
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