Ireland! Week 1: Dingle and Kerry

After the car ferry (recommend splurging on a larger room, especially if you are sharing it with an infant!) we headed to Dingle to meet up with my parents. We stayed at the Greenmount hotel, a fabulous B&B in Dingle with very nice rooms and a delicious breakfast. Our first day in Dingle we toured Dingle town, which is a very cute town full of boutique shopping and galleries. My mom managed to buy something in most of the stores we stopped in and Theo did get an adorable, handmade wooden chair and the builder engraved TINTLE on the back of it in time for his birthday the following day. That night we had dinner at Out of the Blue, a small, non-descript, seafood restaurant that was amazing! The food was absolutely delicious and we discovered that Theo loves all seafood! He ate my entire cup of seafood chowder and several bites of everyone main fish dishes. After dinner, our handy travel nanny (i.e. Grammy) put Theo to bed while Shane, my dad and myself hit up a few of the local pubs. 2 of the pubs we went to that evening were shops by day (hardware and leather) and pubs by night. We also learned that some of the older pubs had small, concealed rooms in the front called snogs, where the women used to go to drink in private.

Fungie the Dingle dolphin

The following day was Theo’s 1st birthday. Our B&B brought him a muffin with a candle in it at breakfast and we picked up a cake from a local bakery that afternoon. I’m not sure Theo had any idea it was a special day, since he is always the center of attention, but the rest of us had a great time eating his cake and showering him with gifts. After breakfast we did the Dingle Peninsula loop tour (Rick Steves’ Ireland) and saw the reason there are so many summer homes in Dingle – the views are incredible. On the tour you see Slea Head, which has beautiful views of the Blasket Islands, amazing beaches and lots of beautiful green land. The Blasket Islands are 6 tiny islands off the coast of Ireland that were populated with a fishing/farming community until 1953 when the government moved the last of them to the mainland. Due to their ability to fish they were not as affected by the Great Potato famine as the rest of Ireland and remained relatively untouched by civilization. The islands are home to several famous Gaelic books including Peig (by Peig Sayers), Twenty Years A-Growing (by Maurice O’Sullivan) and The Islander (by Thomas O’Crohan). After our drive we did a bit more shopping, had dinner at the Chart House restaurant, which we shared with a group who had hired Irish musicians and a dancer to entertain them. Theo felt so honored :o) That night we hit up a few more pubs in the town before our time in Dingle came to an end.

Beach on the Dingle peninsula drive

After Dingle we headed to Kenmare, slightly south in County Kerry. Here we stayed at the Park Hotel Kenmare, which is a truly beautiful hotel. The service at this place was incredible, as was the food, and the rooms were huge. Our room had 2 small steps in it, and since Theo is currently obsessed with steps he spent at least 10 minutes every day climbing up and down these steps – extremely exciting! The town of Kenmare is slightly smaller than Dingle (I think) but we managed to do plenty more shopping while there (see Theo’s new “Ireland” gear). We also visited the Holy Cross church, the town’s cathedral, with a beautiful wood ceiling and impressive sculptures lining the back of the altar. After a delicious dinner in our hotel we left Theo with his happy nanny and hit up a few of Kenmare’s pubs. Shane and my dad were on a mission to find the best pour of Guinness and Murphy’s in Western Ireland. I just depleted the pub’s store of mixers by drinking their cranberry juice and ginger ale.

New hats for the boys!

Theo's new Irish clothes!


The following day Theo stayed at the hotel with my parents while Shane and I drove the Ring of Kerry. This is the famous drive around the Iveragh peninsula with absolutely breathtaking views of Ireland’s coastline. (The drive takes about 4-5 hours though so it was definitely better to leave Theo behind!) Along the drive we stopped at the Staigue Ring fort – 1 of 3 ring forts along the drive, this one is the best preserved. The ring fort was built sometime between 500 BC – 300 AD as a defense for local tribes against other tribes/raiders. After the fort we drove down to Portmagee, a port town where we had lunch looking at the small harbor. You can take a ferry to Skellig Michel from here. Skellig Michel is 7 miles offshore, 700 feet high and 1 mile around and was an isolated, monastic, island settlement, 1st inhabited by 6th century Christian monks. We didn’t take the ferry to the island due to time constraints and my aversion to hiking when 6 months pregnant :o) After lunch we finished off the ring drive, passing through Ladies view – a magnificent view – named after Queen Victoria came here on her visit to Ireland and declared this to be her favorite view of Kerry.


Staigue Ring Fort

We made it back to the hotel by 4:30, plenty of time to spare before my massage at the hotel spa (remember – 6 months pregnant!) Shane and my dad were put in charge of Theo’s dinner, bath and bedtime and when I checked on him at 7:30 he was clean and asleep so they were successful (although I know they each had a glass of Jameson during the process for assistance!) We finished that night at our hotel bar since the men had become friends with the hotel’s whiskey expert and were enjoying the numerous tastings and recommendations that he provided.

Park Hotel Kenmare

The following day we said goodbye to my parents and headed north to Galway. We drove (and took a short car ferry) through the County Clare where we stopped at the Cliffs of Moher – 5 miles of jagged cliffs reaching 650 feet above sea level. The cliffs were beautiful and from the top of them you could see the Aran Islands to the north. After the cliffs we drove through the Burren, whose name means “rocky place.” It is 10 miles of limestone plateau that looks rather odd against the very green countryside that we were used to seeing. However, it apparently holds a unique ecosystem, which has been adapting to the lack of photosynthesis since the ice ages. It was very neat to see.