Day 12: The Dingle Peninsula (Corca Dhuibhne)

APRIL 15 - Leave Cork today in the rain, moving toward Killarney. Since it is so early, and the weather improves, we bypass Killarney and divert northwest to the Dingle Peninsula. Within 30 minutes of leaving Cork, the landscape changes drastically. No longer is it just rolling green hills with farms and stone walls, but now more mountainous terrain surrounds us, the peaks disappearing into the low clouds. Vegetation is less tamed and bare rock appears. Interestingly, this more or less corresponds to the limit of the Anglo-Norman expansion in the 1300’s.

Inch Strand on the Dingle Peninsula, windy but beautiful in the sun. This is backed by a field of vegetated dunes.

The town of Dingle has an aquarium, so naturally there is a butterfly house in it.

The harbor at Dingle. We did NOT see Fungie the Dolphin, as no one has seen this town mascot since 2020.

Some storefronts. Like many of these seaside towns in Ireland, Dingle has given itself completely over to the gods of tourism.

Eask Tower, on a hill south of Dingle. One has to negotiate a lot of sheep droppings to get there. It was not clear to me when it was originally constructed, but in 1847 it was improved and a pointer installed to direct ships toward Dingle harbor. It is solid and made from slate blocks, as are most old structures in this region.

Some Gaelic learned today:

Women: MNA

Men: FIR

A view east from Eask Tower.

Back to Killarney. The streets are packed, as this is a big tourist town and its sunny out. Downtown is an interesting layout, with dead end streets and alleys. We are staying at the Neptune’s Hostel, which is basic but decent, though wi-fi is only usable in the common area. Actually sit in a restaurant for dinner!

Republic of Ireland