October 6, 2019. Trip Oversight
Q: “Do ya know da one difference between an Irishman and a Scottsman?”
A: “Only one of them can swim.”
-A Dubliner explaining to us how much the Irish and Scottish dislike the English (the Irish swam across the Irish Sea to escape England)
One extra quote
“Sometimes I use big words that I don’t always fully understand in order to make myself sound more photosynthesis.”
-Will Ferrell
Top 12 Trip Picks
• Pyramids of Giza
• Parthenon – Athens, Greece
• Meteora, Greece (Kalabaka)
• Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia
• West Cork, Ireland
• Banks of the Seine, Paris, France
• London along the Thames
• Luxor, Egypt
• Dublin, Ireland
• Peloponnese, Greece
• Dubrovnik/Trogir/Zadar, Croatia
• Cappadocia, Turkey
Lesson Learned: Did you know that the Irish people drive on the left side of the road? Wow, that’s so messed up.
Road Trips are Amazing
Seven months on the road and countless sites seen, cities lived in, countries visited, and cultures experienced leave you with countless memories. The experiences fill you with fresh opinions, unexpected thrills, new friendships, and real-life exposure to images and places we’ve dreamed about our entire lives, and twice as many more that we never expected. It also leaves you with a yearning to see more. Ellen and I were on the road for 213 days, eight countries (not counting Iceland, or Bosnia-Herzegovina), we slept in 51 different beds, visited 22 UNESCO World Heritage sites, and explored who knows how many towns and cities.
But we’ve also got a list of the things we’ve seen, and places we really enjoyed. Friends continually ask what we enjoyed the most on our journey. That’s tough to decide, or rank from first to last. That’s like asking “What’s your favorite food.” or “Who is your favorite child?”, give me a break. Our trip experience was cumulative, and difficult to separate the experience into discrete events. Much of what we did or saw built upon the events of the previous day or week, and blended over our travels to paint our memories. Here are a few of our favorite memories from our travels in 2019. You may have heard of these places before, but here’s a list of experiences we’d do again. Today I’ll review, West Cork County, Ireland.
West Cork County, Ireland
Every St. Patrick’s Day you see “Kiss Me I’m Irish” or “Everyone is Irish Today” T-shirts. When I pull on one of those shirts, I want to be from County Cork…..on the far west side. This is the Ireland of movies, epic tales, and nostalgic travelers. I’m a bubba from West Texas, but you can drop me in Kenmare any time you want. It’s that damned nice.
When visiting the southwestern part of Ireland most tourists find themselves driving the heavily-traveled Ring of Kerry (which is a route around County Kerry) which is lovely and is considered to be one of the world’s most scenic areas, but its full of tourists clogging the narrow, narrow roads acting like they don’t know how to drive on the left side of the lane. You know, acting like Americans. Take a tip from me, and consider the less-famous Ring of Beara. It’s also in the same part of the country, the southwest, is just as gorgeous, and has far fewer tourists presenting road hazards to barnyard fowl and slow-walking senior citizens.
The 128 km long Beara Peninsula route— named after the Spanish Princess Beara (some Castilian Spanish king’s daughter spirited off to marry this wild Irishman named Eoghan Mo’r) — is drop dead gorgeous. Much of the ring follows The Wild Atlantic Way (a long-distance touring route, stretching along the Atlantic coast from Donegal to West Cork) through all the towns and villages of the Beara Peninsula. The Ring of Beara is a glimpse into Ireland at its most untamed with lots to see off the beaten path, and thankfully tourist bus-free for the most part. Ah, there is something in Ireland outside of tipping a few pints at the Temple Bar in Dublin.
The ring starts in the town of Kenmare. The Ring crosses the Healy Pass and meanders through villages including Adrigole, Castletownbeare, and Ahihies. Kenmare is a scenic little village with lots of hotels, BNBs, hostels and cafés to keep you fed with a pint or two to cloud your memories. It’s a very walkable town, so park your car and stroll around the four or five blocks that make up the city center.
We took four days to do the Ring, but you can do it in less (or more if you like). Here are some of the towns to visit on the peninsula.
Tuosist
There’s a lot to see in this small area. Stop off at the Uragh Stone Circle, see the horsetail waterfalls at Gleninchaquin, drive down the coast road to Kilmacalogue Harbor.
Lauragh
Glanmore Lake is one of the mot stunning picturesque spots in Ireland, then make sure your seat belt is on as you head to Healy Pass, zipping down its spectacular winding route to the south.
Ardgroom & Eyeries
After coming down from the top of the Healy Pass drive towards Ardgroom, a traditional village steeped in history. Chat to local artists and craftspeople and drive towards Eyeries. I can’t emphasize too much how hospitable we found the people of Ireland. Everyone is willing to stop and chat. They are always interested in hearing about America, and all seem to have relatives in the U.S., or are planning a trip (New York, Boston and San Francisco seem to be the top travel sites) or both. We really enjoyed our time mingling with the locals. Ellen claims this is her favorite country to visit on the trip.
Allihies & Dursey Island
The road here shrinks and twists until you’re at the very edge of the Peninsula and you come upon the charming village of Allihies. This road is typically what I’d call a goat trail, but here it’s just an average country lane. Visit the old Copper Mines, take some time to enjoy the amazing sandy beach (it was cold, raining, and foggy, even in July), or detour towards Dursey Island, where you can take the Cable Car to explore. We wanted to do the cable car, but each day we were in County Cork the visibility was about 13 feet. Not that I’m complaining, it’s better than having unlimited visibility and temperatures of 100 degrees like it is back home.
Castletownbere
This area was home to the O’Sullivan Bere clan. Here you will find the ruins of Dunboy O’Sullivan/Beara castle, look at the pics and other historical sites as well as the fishing town of Castletownberehaven. If you have the time, ferries run over to the hillwalker’s paradise of Bere Island.
Adrigole & Glengarriff
The glens around the village of Adrigole and the town of Glengarriff are a stunning natural haven. You can take a short ferry across to the botanical gardens at Garnish Island (well worth your time), with 15 hectares of plants and architecture to explore. Stop off at the Ewe Sculptural Gardens up the road if you are in the mood for a little whimsy mixed in with your beautiful countryside.
The Sheen Valley
There’s just one stop left, but it’s worth it. Head north over the spectacular Caha Pass, through tunnels hand-carved in the days before heavy machinery. Be sure to stop off to take a look at Molly Gallivan’s to see an authentic 19th century Irish farm, or visit the Bonane Heritage Park, and learn more about the ancient history of the area, before following the Sheen river down to the Kenmare Bay and back to Kenmare town, where we spent the night right in the center of town and had a great meal in one of the pubs listening to Irish folk music.
Ewe Sculpture Garden
The Ewe Garden is a unique combination of nature and art – and Ireland’s only interactive & interpretive sculpture garden. For ten years Kurt and Sheena Wood ran the Ewe Art Centre on the Mizen peninsula. They moved to Glengarriff and then opened the Ewe Sculpture Garden in 2004 as a continuation of that work.
The art works are mostly by Sheena, a prolific artist with an impressive range of work from paintings to textiles, mixed media, mosaics, ceramics and sculpture, and a few thrown in by Kurt, her writer husband. A major part of the allure of the garden is the surrounding scenery from the garden, the sound of trickling water and the stunning lushness of the streams, waterfalls and local and imported flora.
There truly is a surprise waiting for you around every corner. It’s a fun place to visit and I’d have posted more pictures, but the battery on my camera died and the ever-present rain set in and we just enjoyed our soggy tour of the grounds.
Cliffs of Moher
OK, so the cliffs are not in County Cork, but they are worth a drive north to County Clare. If you read any guide of Ireland they’ll all recommend visiting the Cliffs of Moher, and with good reason. The Cliffs of Moher are a stretch of magnificent sea cliffs in County Clare (the counties in Ireland rival West Texas counties around Marfa in regards to size). They rise out of the sea and run for about 14 kilometers until the shrink back down to sea level. At their southern end, they rise 120 meters (390 ft) at Hag’s Head, and, eight kilometers to the north, they soar to their maximum height of 214 meters (702 ft) north of O’Brien’s Tower, which is a round stone tower near the midpoint of the cliffs, built in 1835 by Sir Cornelius O’Brien for no apparent reason.
The cliffs are beautiful, and jam packed with tourists. Moher is out in the middle of nowhere, where even the sheep look bored, and we got stuck in a half hour traffic jam just to get to the parking lot for the cliffs. Once there, there were so many people on the cliffs I honestly was afraid someone might get bumped over the edge. Seriously, there are no guard rails. The cattle grazing along the park are held back by electric fencing, but the tour bus gawkers are there at their own risk.
From the cliffs, you can see the Aran Islands, the Maumturks and Twelve Pins mountain ranges to the north in County Galway, and Loop Head to the south. The tourist department claims the cliffs rank among the most visited tourist sites in Ireland, with around 1.5 million visits per year. I think most of them were there on the Saturday we visited.
We chose the easier option to see the cliffs, entering at the visitor center, the official one being set back a little for safety behind a sandstone barrier (but nobody stays back there), while an unofficial path runs along the edge.
The next morning after walking the cliffs we took a tour boat for a one hour cruise at the base of Moher. It’s a great way to see the scale of these formations, sea birds, have a nice boat ride, and even the Harry Potter cave (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)). One of the most impressive formations is Branaunmore, a 67-meter high sea stack at the foot of the cliffs. It was once part of the cliffs, but coastal erosion gradually removed the layers of rock that joined it with the mainland. A large sea arch can also be seen at Hag’s Head below the Napoleonic signal tower and many smaller sea arches can be seen from the tour boats. Many people take the half or full day voyages out to the Aran Islands, but we passed on this opportunity since those type trips can trap you and may prove to be a waste of time. We prefer scheduled departures so we can spend a lot of time on an island, or get the hell out of Dodge if you don’t like the destination. We want to manage our schedules, not be managed.
I agree with the tourist touts. If you are coming to Ireland, the Cliffs of Moher need to be on your to-do list. Be sure to make advance reservations, these places fill up quickly. There are multiple hotels, loads of BNBs/Guest Houses, camp grounds, and hostels. We stayed in a small village. So small, it had more pubs (2) than it did stop signs (1). We had a half block walk to one of the pubs, which had surprisingly good food (and great beer), and was a 15-minute walk to the ferry landing. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a view of the cliffs, but it was comfortable and convenient. I will mention that it’s worth your while to continue on north to Donegal County to see the cliffs at Slieve League, but this post was supposed to be about West County Cork. Go, enjoy, chill!
Where to stay: Stay in Kenmare while doing Beara. If you go to the cliffs of Moher find a hotel or guest house in Doonagore or Doolin.
How long should you stay: One week to a lifetime.
What to see: Nature is the star attraction of this stop. Make sure you slow down enough to kick back and enjoy the view. Have a pint for me.
Next Up: Banks of the Seine, Paris, France