Day 4 Kerry Ring out of Kenmare

Today was based around touring the Kerry Ring but, as with the Wild Atlantic Way, we are using the route simply a base to work from. The Ring is notorious for being congested with coaches that arrive from Limerick and follow the Ring in an anti-clockwise direction (by law) and initially we had considered simply getting ahead of them but after research by Lynne we decided on a completely different strategy which worked well for us.

We were away from our lodgings in Kenmare and on route shortly after 9am heading along the southern edge of the peninsula following a clockwise route. The plan was that by the time we met the coaches we would be leaving the main route to explore the head of the peninsula and only return to the ring route later after they had gone. This allowed us to stop and look at our leisure; the other massive advantage being that pull ins would be on the left of the road and we'd always have the sea view.

A fast road took us to Sneem after which the land opened out to big views varying between sea and high hills. There were some wonderful sea views from the side of the road.

Nearing the end of the peninsula we thought we should explore and, ignoring Lamb's Head, we took the following turn passing Derrymore House and Gardens down to The Strand, a wonderful beach area. We walked some of the beach in the sunshine, out of the wind amongst the rocks it was actually quite warm.  Unlike in England and Wales, we find we can drive to the coast here and not always encounter charged parking even to have a look; here we found good free parking, well maintained toilets and a lifeguard attended beach.

The Strand

We returned to the N70 and main route. Very soon we encountered a spectacular viewpoint over Abbey Island. If coming the other way, this would have been the second layby after the big viewpoint car park where the coaches pull in. The coach park must get busy as stalls were setting up selling fudge and other goodies ready for them.

Abbey Island

The next town was Waterville, claiming fame as a holiday location for Charlie Chaplin. We parked at the side of the road thinking Coffee and Cake at a waterfront Café but didn't find one and after an amble through town carried on. It was 11:45 and we were meeting the leading edge of the coaches now.

Leaving the N70, we headed off into the end of the peninsula toward Ballinskellig. The views out to the Skellig Islands were great, the larger island Skellig Michael, though at a distance 8 miles off, is a fascinating starkly jagged vision; apparently it is used in a later Star Wars film.

Skellig Michael

Our next stop was as we passed the Skellig Chocolate factory and were tempted in. A very good tasting session where one of the staff takes you through pieces of several flavoured and textured chocolate was really interesting - it was also successful as we spent €8 of some hazelnuts pralines. Being lunchtime, we enjoyed the on site cafe's coffee and scones followed by half a raspberry and almond slice each.
Heading on to the Cliffs of Kerry, we stopped briefly at a viewpoint over the wide flood plain valley before dropping down the hill and pulling into the "Cliffs of Kerry Experience", actually a farm which has gradually turned over to providing car park and tracks to access fantastic views of the cliffs. At €4 per person it sounded expensive but they have worked on it and fencing, drainage and insurance cost a lot. Given we had just spent the same on a whim on some chocolate it was a fair price.



Beehive Houses exibition



Kerry Cliffs and the Skerrig Islands



Kerry Cliffs

Quite a few sections of single track road out here at the end of the peninsula but all in good condition.

The afternoon moving on now at 3pm we considered our next steps and decided, for the novelty of a ferry ride, to head over the bridge at Portmagee to Valentia Island and then take the ferry to re-join the N70 back inland. Portmagee itself was a nice little town and we stopped for an ice cream before moving on to a mere 10 min wait for the ferry. (note: the queue on the mainland going the opposite way was about 3 ferries worth, I guess 30-40 mins for the back cars).

Valentia Island ferry

We had hoped to be back earlier tonight and it was now late afternoon as we moved along the N70 not stopping or diverting to locations such as Kells Beach and Bog Village.

Being Bank Holiday weekend we have seen adverts in many town for festivals and passing through the town Cahersiveen soon after the ferry we drove skirting around crowds drinking spread onto the road around pubs; all along the high street individuals and groups of children and adults had set up outside shops with violins, guitars, bodhran, whistles and accordions. Some larger groups played in pub grounds and outside one shop a girl was Irish Dancing on a board. Traffic massively disrupted but crawling through at walking pace with the windows open was a treat.

We realised that we were going to head straight into Limerick and round back to Kenmare when we had intended covering one of the passes/gaps today and decided regardless of the time to return via the Gap of Dunloe.
We turned off the N70 and made progress for a short while before encountering Horse drawn carriages, solo horse riders and walkers. The road was labelled a Priority for horse drawn vehicles and walkers but traffic isn't forbidden. We thought it was late in the afternoon and comparatively quiet and we continued up, threading our way behind and past the horse drawn and foot traffic as well cars coming the other way. It seemed a long way up part of the southern side of the pass to the point where the carriages turned back and we continued the winding steep single track climb to the summit.
8 miles and 1 hour after turning into the pass we got to the other end.

Jaunting Carts on Gap of Dunloe



Gap of Dunloe summit

It is an amazing pass but unless you are feeling extremely patient, comfortable with close quarter passing and reversing tight into walls and ditches, and confident with your gear selection on tight steep corners I would give it a miss. Even if you tick all these boxes, it's difficult not to get frustrated by the many who don't and that you have to make allowance for.
Not stopping other than briefly at the summit as any pull ins are passing places, we made our way over the pass and through the wide Green Black Valley before reaching the two way road at Molls Gap and dropping down to Kenmare and lodgings arriving 9 hours after leaving. Tired!

Statistics (from Dublin):

Miles today: 123; Miles so far: 510; Fuel added so far: 30 litres;

Track Today and since Journey Start: