So the Ring of Kerry Ireland; What to see
if you only have one day? Coming up! Hello Adventurers! This is Niels from Adventures In Quiet Places
and on this channel we share tips for your trip to South-West Ireland. Including the Ring of Kerry, which we're doing today! Now you can absolutely do the Ring of Kerry drive in just
one day. Honestly the drive itself is already the main attraction. It is just so beautiful driving
around this peninsula. But there are also some very interesting stops along the way. So we are starting
today in Killarney. We're not starting in Muckross House we're not starting in Muckross Gardens, we're
not going to Torc either. No, we are starting in Muckross Abbey. Beautiful place, nice and quiet,
especially early in the morning; it's a fantastic place to start your Ring of Kerry drive.
This was originally a Franciscan abbey, built in 1448. During the time of Henry VIII it was heavily suppressed,
just like all monasteries across the British Isles. It came back after Henry's reign but during
Cromwellian times it finally met its demise. The Yew tree that you find inside of the inner courtyard
is truly something special. It's really old and rumored to be as old as the abbey itself. As we're
enjoying the surroundings of the abbey right here I want to give you a rundown of what the idea is
for today. What we would like to share with you are the best places in both nature and culture
on the Ring of Kerry, all through the eyes of us as a local. So really, what we think
will give you the best bang for your buck and which places you should absolutely see. Now
this is going to be a jam-packed day so feel free to either add or remove places. This is just what
we think will really just add and give you a fantastic day. For the culture stops we try to give
you places that cover the whole of Irish history; All the way from ancient, ancient history before
even the rise of humans, down to the Neolithic, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, early Middle Ages, the
early Modern Period -which you are seeing right here with the abbey- and even the Colonial Times,
later on with the lighthouse on Valentia Island. Do you, pick the things that you think
are fantastic. Add, subtract, and just enjoy! So that was Muckross Abbey, we're off to the Gap
of Dunloe. Now, what do you think? good start? We're driving the Gap of Dunloe right
now. The funny thing is it's fantastic if you have a car. But if you don't have a car,
if you come here with either a tour bus or a taxi, it'll drop you off right at the mouth of
the Gap of Dunloe. And that's the non-interesting part. So what a lot of tourists do is they
walk like a hundred meters or perhaps if they're very adventurous like a kilometer. They
go like: "Yeah, yeah, this is nice but I'm not quite sure what all of the fuss is about". That's
because you're not seeing the interesting part. You get to the interesting part with
a car. So you guys driving along with us today, you're in luck. We're going through the
whole thing, you can see the nice parts! So we're still at the end of tourist season
now, so we're still in season, and you will see that it's still busy. Now when you come out of
season or you go really early in the morning there won't be that many people around. There won't
be that many cars in here. You get the feeling that you got the whole thing to yourself. If you go in the
middle of winter, there's no one around. No one! So, we made it. It's a windy day up
at the Gap of Dunloe. It was really busy with cars. So if you can, go either very
early in the morning or out of season. So most people would turn straight back around
and go back to the Ring of Kerry itself from the Gap of Dunloe, the moment they get
to the actual pass. Not us! We're going down into the Black Valley, so on to the other
side. We're going to enjoy our breakfast at Lord Brandon's Cottage. It's a beautiful little
estate inside of the Black Valley. The closer you get to Lord Brandon's Cottage, the more we get
the feeling that you're driving through The Shire or into Hobbiton, with the winding roads and small
little waterfalls. Lord Brandon's Cottage is not open year-round. So just look up before you do
intend to come down here if it is open and if it's not, do bring your own packed lunch or packed
breakfast because it's still wonderful to enjoy outside of the main gates. Time for a cup of coffee,
also they've got toilets here. Insider tip! That little intermezzo was just perfect! It would be
a shame if you missed the Black Valley on your Ring of Kerry drive. This place is just
magical. So next up, we're going to do a little bit of driving back through the Gap of Dunloe. And our next stop is going to be Glenbeigh Beach. On the other side of the bay you
are seeing the Dingle Peninsula. So that's what you're seeing
if you're looking northwards. And on the other side of the beach and
the bay that is the Kerry Peninsula. Oh that was fantastic! Next up:
Cahersiveen and Valentia Island! We made it to Cahersiveen. First up:
snacks! What do you have? Ice cream! Yes! So the snackspedition has been successful! There's
a lot to see in Cahersiveen. There's the old barracks, there is a beautiful old castle that
at the moment unfortunately is too dangerous to visit. There are two old Iron Age Ring Forts. We're gonna
all ignore that and go straight for Valentia Island with the ferry. There's so much to see on
the Ring, that we have to make choices We're gonna go to Valentia Island. You can go to Valentia Island by a bridge so you don't necessarily have to take the ferry. But hey we're here, we make
it into an adventure ,we'll take the ferry. There's so many sights to see on Valentia
Islands, it's difficult to make a choice. The two that we've done for
today, that we highly recommend, is the lighthouse, including a gorgeous Standing Stone that I'll be passing in just a second. And the Tetrapod Track, which are some of
the oldest land animal tracks in the world. Absolutely stunning, and they're very close
together, the surroundings are just beautiful. So that's the lighthouse where we just were
and right around the corner is our next stop: The Tetrapod Tracks - 350 million years old! So these are some of the oldest tracks
from amphibious creatures crawling out of the ocean onto the land that we have. There's
only like two or three of these kinds of places in the world. Now don't expect huge tracks. It's not
like dinosaur-big. A meter-long salamander kind of a dimension. So set your expectations.
It's pretty darn fantastic to see something that old and that unique
in the whole world, right here in Kerry! And we've got Dingle and the Blasket Islands
in the background and there the track continues. And that is it for Valentia Island. We are off to
the Kerry Cliffs, potentially even better than the Cliffs of Moher. If you're getting some value out
of this video please consider subscribing to the channel it really does help us out, and that way
you get notified every single time that we post another video of either the Ring of Kerry, Dingle,
Ring of Beara, Sheep's Head Peninsula, to make your trip just perfect! The Tetrapod Track was amazing
but our track back up to the car park, quite steep! Of course everybody is going to make the
comparison with the more famous Cliffs of Moher up north. Now the Kerry Cliffs
are indeed less long but they are higher than the Cliffs of Moher. The
cliffs up north are about 700 feet, or 200 plus meters in height where the kerry cliffs
are over a thousand feet or 300 meters in height. Now for me personally that's not the main selling point for this place. It's the rock structure down below which creates very interesting wave
structures, which I find far more interesting here than at the Cliffs of Moher. Of course also
you've got the beautiful view over the Skelligs. And here it's far less touristy, far less
overrun by tourists than at the Cliffs of Moher. As we finish our visit to the Cliffs of Kerry most people actually turn left and go back
to Portmagee and then to Cahersiveen and drive onwards towards Waterville. Honestly,
in our opinion that's a very dull part of the Ring, between Cahersiveen and Waterville.
So instead we are taking a right when exiting the Cliffs of Kerry, go straight up the mountain
on the far more interesting drive of the Skellig Ring. And on the Ring of Skellig just outside of Ballinskelligs, you'll be passing this prehistoric grave which is called Coom's Wedge Tomb. Now the tomb
is on private land but you can get close enough at the edge of the field to get a real good sense
of just the dimensions and the beauty of this tomb. In local folklore, this is said to be one of the
many Diarmuid and Gráinne Beds that were constructed as shelter by Diarmuid, for him and his love when
they were on their flight from Finn's epic rage. There's supposedly 365 of these kinds of Diarmuid
and Gráinne beds in Ireland; one for every night of the year. And this is also one of the biggest
of these kinds of tombs in the whole of Kerry. And if you keep on following
the signs for the Skellig ring you'll end up on the actual Ring of Kerry
road itself, just outside of Waterville. And again we think this is a far more
interesting and more beautiful drive than if you were to take the normal Ring of
Kerry route between Cahersiveen and Waterville. We're here at Caher Staigue or Staigue Fort, which
is one of the best examples left in Ireland of an Iron Age Ring Fort. Don't get me wrong there
are tons of Iron Age Ring Forts in Ireland. As in if you look at the ordnance survey map
they're dotted everywhere. But this is one of the best examples left. Take a look
at the structure and the stairwells here. So this place has a fantastic local legend
connected to it about fairies and Gaelic football. The story goes a little something like this:
Apparently, there was a huge rivalry between the fairies of Staigue Fort and those of the Cahergal
Stone Fort which is right next to Cahersiveen which we passed earlier. Now this rivalry was fought out
in ferocious games of Gaelic football, played on moonlit nights. Apparently, there was a local by
the name of Coneen Dinnihy, who entered one of these moonlit games and scored two of the winning goals
for Cahergal Fort. Now when his mother found out that he entered and played with the fairies she
forbade him to do anything like that again. And when the fairies found that out they cursed Coneen
to lie prostrate on his bed for nine months. Now what the moral is of the story I'm not quite sure
other than fear your local Irish mommy. They're fierce! Next up is my favorite little town
on the Ring of Kerry and that is Kenmare. Kenmare is a lovely little tourist town
with in our opinion the best restaurants on the Ring of Kerry. Really nice
little tourist shops as well. We'll visit all of that but first up
we're going to take a look at the Stone Circle. This is an absolute
must-see when you are in Kenmare. The entrance is two euros per person. Now during
the height of the tourist season, in the midst of summer, there will be somebody there to take that
entrance fee but if you're coming outside of the height of the tourist season, like we are
right now, there will only be an honesty box. We are at Kenmare's Stone Circle right now.
This is really easy to get to from Kenmare town center itself. There are actually three Stone Circles that you come past on your Ring of Kerry drive. The first one is in Killarney but that one
is off-limits for both locals and tourists. It in such a fragile state that you can't get to
it. It's really off-limits. The second one is near Waterville. That one is completely overgrown and
also in terribly bad shape and it's a little bit off the beaten path. So very rarely is it ever
visited even by locals. And the third and last one is here in Kenmare in this beautiful little
park. So come and take a look, it's really worth it. What you see there in the middle is a so-called
Boulder Burial which is a megalithic expression of burials which is very unique to Ireland and
specifically to South-West Ireland. So you're really seeing something quite unique here inside
of the Stone Circle itself. As you can tell it's been a very long day already. So what a lot of
people tend to do is make Kenmare their end stop for the day. This is where they have their dinner
this is where they stay for the night and then the next day they move on for the last leg of the journey
which is up to Moll's Gap and down into Killarney National Park and Ladies View. Especially if you're
a little bit later in the season towards winter or early springtime there's far less daylight left
and as a result it's easier to make sure that you capture that last leg of the journey -Ladies
View particularly- with ample daylight. So a lot of people they stay in Kenmare and then move on the
next day. I'm gonna do a quick visit to one of my favorite places in Kenmare to stay and that is the
Rose Garden. We're gonna pay a visit to Mary! What kind of people come here? So mainly our cafe we
have local, most people will be local or people attending weddings or events in the area. And
then with the B&B there will be European, American and also attending events in the area. That's a
nice combination actually with locals and tourists! Do they mingle? Yeah they do! I find
they all mingle and they're all very happy. What do you recommend of the cakes? Of the cakes?
Yeah I like kind of fruity cakes, so a lemon tarts, pear and almonds, we do a lovely orange
and passion fruit cake. You're not mentioning the pecan! There's a lovely chocolate pecan if you're a
chocolate fan! The Rose Garden is located about five minutes of a walk outside of Kenmare center.
It has a really nice little menu, it has a very good B&B and Mary will take very good care of
you. You can find links down in the description for more information, now let's keep on driving!
After visiting the lovely tourist shops and having a bite to eat in Kenmare, we're going for
our last leg of the journey. we're going back up into the mountains again over Moll's Gap and down
towards Ladies View and back towards Killarney. In our eyes this is the most beautiful part
of the Ring of Kerry. Although everything is stellar, this part in particular with the
views over Killarney National Park and Killarney Lakes is just gorgeous. And down there
you can see the Black Valley and Lord Brandon's Cottage, where we were earlier this morning.
Now we did make this part of the recording in the early morning hours before we started at
Muckross Abbey, just because we had to come out of Kenmare to get to Killarney. You could
probably tell that by the light change. We're making our way back towards Killarney,
to the place where we started earlier this morning. I did make another video for you guys,
with my 15 best driving tips as a local, that I think will be handy for you as you're navigating these
very narrow winding roads on the Ring of Kerry Ireland. Check it out. I'll add it to the end cards and as
always if you got some value out of this video give it a Like and I'll see
you guys in the next video!
