Day 7 The Dingle Peninsula

Italics tour company description


September 9 2015

THE DINGLE PENINSULA. After breakfast at 9am today you will meet your driver/guide and travel west onto the edge of a continent. The Dingle Peninsula is a journey that takes in the wild and rugged beauty of the Slea head Drive. The peninsula is littered with Archaeological remains and secluded sandy beaches, here you can walk on one of them and feel the splendid isolation that the Neolithic settlers must have felt in 4,000 BC when they made the area their home. 

We start today by checking out of the hotel and going to Muckross House which was on the agenda for one of our days.

We pick up a jaunting cart, spread our green plaid blankets across our knees and Paddy the horse is ready to escort us around the grounds.

The Abbey.

Time for a coffee break.

And a wander in their gardens.

We took the hour long tour of the house which is fantastic. Our guide was charming and eloquent. However, no photos were allowed.

But I did "steal" this one from their website just to give you a taste.

The gardens as we leave the tour.

Mick greets us with a new and improved hair cuT!

The Dingle Peninsula or Corca Dhuibhne stretches 30 miles (48 kilometres) into the Atlantic Ocean from Ireland's south-west coast.

So we stopped for lunch and had figured we would be on our own once we checked into the hotel. No, not to be so, Mick had plans. A drive along the Slea Head.

We do a drive around Dingle.we check out some stuff. The sun is shining but the breeze is strong So seemly Mick hasn't checked these out either. Let's just say you need your walking shoes. And maybe some weather proof gear. The climbs are hard going.
The proper spelling is Dun Beag.


Dún Beag Fort is an impressive and elaborate example of a promontory fort dated to 500BC. We viewed an introductory film and then crossed the road and climbed down to the fort.

Adorable!

Some prehistoric creatures I meet on the way. It never pays to step off the beaten path.

A mere inches down the road we are in for some more climbing. There are some thatched cottages that were abandoned during the famine. They have been turned into a makeshift museum.

The peninsula is dominated by the range of mountains that form its spine, running from the Slieve Mish range to Mount Brandon, Ireland's second highest peak.

The coastline consists of steep sea-cliffs, broken by sandy beaches, with two large sand spits at Inch in the south and the Maharees to the north.

We make many wonderful stops.

Dingle Town is one of Ireland’s quickly disappearing Gaeltacht regions where Irish is the first language and one can almost sense the difference here. Your driver/guide will teach you a “cupla focal”, a few words in Irish. You will spend the day exploring the region and in the afternoon check in for an overnight stay in 2 deluxe sea view rooms at Emlagh House.

We finally arrive at our destination for the evening around 6PM and are met by Adele, the owner and taken to our charming rooms.

Dingle comes alive in the evening with music and craic and the evening is free for to relax, dine at your leisure and enjoy some great traditional Irish music.

John and I head out for the evening. We run into Mick on our strolls, in his t-shirt and jeans I almost didn't recognize him. We learn the next morning that he did a few songs in a pub in town.

Entertainment in the pub where we had dinner.