Dingle Peninsula
May 20, 2025
At last, the weather turned typical for this time of year for western Ireland, so we may get some rain today. Hopefully, not enough to interfere with our plans!
We plan to spend most of the day driving around the Dingle Peninsula and Slea Head Drive.
We drove for about an hour or so from Killarney northwest to the bustling town of Dingle, where we gassed up the car and headed out to the wilder part of the Peninsula. There were several potential tourist stops that involved either or both sheep or stone structures. We stopped at one site and climbed to some beehive huts made of stone from the 8th to 12th century AD. A beehive hut is a dry-stone hut with a corbelled roof, and if you’ve seen the Last Jedi movie, you’ve seen them.
A typical coastal view above, and the stone walls, below.
These are beehive huts.
One of the roadside businesses offered the opportunity to hold a baby lamb, but we kept driving! We pulled over at several viewpoints at places on the famous Slea Head Drive where the road was very narrow with low stone edges. The hills above us had many agricultural plots marked by stone walls. There were many sheep here, although in other parts of the country, we saw many cows.
This shows the road with the stone wall.
Above are several views of the coast, including offshore islands. Below, a view of Slea Head Drive from one beach pull off.
We next visited the incredible museum at the Blasket Centre. This museum is dedicated to the people who once inhabited the Blasket Islands that are visible just off shore. The museum shows a wonderful 15-minute video describing the lives of the people who once inhabited the islands (including interviews with some of the last to have lived there). The last inhabitants all relocated to the mainland and the islands were abandoned in 1954, although it is now possible to spend the night there via an Airbnb in summer. The story of the Blasket people was really remarkable. The photo above was taken near the pier that takes summer visitors to Great Blasket Island. The next three photos were taken at the viewpoint of the museum, with the second one showing Great Blasket Island.
We got a faint view here of Skellig Michael (more about that later), above. After leaving the museum, we stopped at one last amazing viewpoint that featured a beautiful beach (Clogher Strand) and a large sea cave, below.
Next, we stopped at two stone monuments. The first of these was the 6th century Riasc Monastic Settlement that featured some carved stone pillars. After that, we visited the oldest (7th or 8th century) and best preserved church building in Ireland, the Gallarus Oratory, which allowed us to walk inside.
Two photos from Riasc Monastic Site.
Two views of Gallarus Oratory.
These activities filled the morning. We arrived back in Dingle for a late lunch in a traditional Irish bar. After, we walked around central Dingle to soak up the atmosphere. Here is a photo of Dingle town.
From there, we drove north across the Dingle Peninsula, and up and over the Conor Pass, one of the highest mountain passes in Ireland at 1,500 ft. The upper area is desolate, with no trees. There were some nice lakes and the ocean in the distance is a deep blue.
Connor Pass, above. Like everywhere, there were sheep here.
Driving down from the pass, we headed north, to the town of Tralee. Since it was now raining, we decided to visit the Kerry County Museum. This museum provides an overwhelming overview of Irish history, focusing on events that took place in County Kerry. We are quickly realizing that Irish history is nothing if not complicated!
We drove back to Killarney, after making a stop to put air in our car’s tires (crisis averted), arriving back about 5 pm—a very full day.
Here is the map of the Dingle Peninsula drive.
Tomorrow, we will tackle another all day drive, the famous Ring of Kerry.
