Dingle Peninsula

I don’t think I’ve mentioned just how gloriously beautiful Ireland is. Seriously, it is beyond words. Neither photos nor waxing poetic can do it an ounce of justice.

I do know that the words that will immediately pop into my mind every time I think back on our time in Ireland are:

GREEN.
Rock walls.
Endless fields of sheep and Jersey cows.
100’s of shades of green.
Rows of rock walls.
Immensely kind, hospitable, gracious Irish people.
Did I mention Green?
    and
More rock walls.

So very many Rock Walls!

One thing I know for sure, the Irish really know how to stack rocks and make sturdy and good-looking rock walls!

Not a drop of cement or mortar is needed!

Even in prehistoric times, there were rock walls and rock huts, known as beehive huts.

We visited some beehive huts on our way around the Dingle Peninsula.

We spent one glorious afternoon making our way around the Peninsula and the rest of the day walking the streets in the town of Dingle, for which the peninsula is named.

The peninsula exists because of the band of sandstone rock that forms the mountain ranges at the neck of the peninsula. Ireland’s second-highest mountain, Mount Brandon at 951 meters, forms part of a beautiful high ridge with stunning views over the peninsula and North Kerry. (Those dots of white are sheep, there are lots of sheep in Ireland!)

Connor Pass, which runs from Dingle on the south-western end of the peninsula towards Brandon Bay and Castlegregory in the northeast, is the highest mountain pass in Ireland.

It is a narrow, twisting road that weaves its way around the sharp cliff faces and past the high corrie lakes.

It is like being up in the clouds and on most days, you actually are!

After coming down from Connor Pass…

… we drove to Dingle and Connor posed next to his namesake signpost.

Dingle is a pretty town with shopping and plenty of pubs, exactly what we were looking for.

Well, me the shopping and the boys the pubs.

Cute and unique shops on every corner.

On the day we were there there was a farmer’s and crafter’s market in the square. The tomatoes were red as could be, the earth still clung to the potatoes, the carrots were huge and beautiful handmade wool clothing was abundant.

Oh, and how the Irish love their Guinness.

We’d always been told that the Guinness in Ireland is nothing like the Guinness in the States.

So True! It’s easy to see why it replaces gluttony as one of the “deadly sins.”

If you go to Ireland, be sure to set aside a day to drive the Dingle Peninsula and have a frothy Guinness in a Dingle pub.