After visiting Muckross Abbey near Killarney, we had a drive down the road through Killarney National Park in Ireland. This post will cover that evening and our drive the following morning when we woke up bright and early in order to drive around the Ring of Kerry. We'd just been to a visit of Muckross Abbey in the pouring rain, but the rain ceased during the drive. This post will feature some really amazing places that we saw, such as Ladies' View and Torc waterfall, the fishing village of Portmagee, and Kenmare Stone Circle.
Our first stop was not far down the road from the abbey, and that was a visit to Torc Waterfall. We parked up in the parking spaces for cars, which was empty except for one other car. The rain must have chased everyone away. It was raining lightly, but the trail was covered by trees and the waterfall was not too far away; I anticipated that we could walk to the waterfall in under ten minutes.
We saw the brook with beautiful rhododendrons along its banks as we walked further into the trees.
I loved the green moss growing everywhere. Everything (rocks, tree trunks, the ground) seemed to be covered by the green moss.
At last, we arrived at Torc Waterfall and watched the water cascade down and over the rocks. It was beautiful. Even better was that no one else was around; we had the waterfall to ourselves. The water cascades down from Torc Mountain and is 20 metres high.
Isn't it beautiful?
Actually, Muckross Abbey is just across the fields from the waterfall, and the horse-drawn carriages (jaunting cars) can make the trip between the two places. This would be nice for a sunny day. There's also a pathway to stairs up to the top of the waterfall with nice views over the lakes, but we did not do this.
After we had seen enough of the waterfall, we headed back to the car. After all the rain, the trees were surrounded by the large puddles of rainwater.
I loved the beautiful rhododendrons. They were everywhere.
We continued to drive around Killarney, and we headed south. There were nice views of the lakes that we could see as we drove.
The fog was lifting, and as we climbed the mountains, the rain ceased.
The sun started to come out, and we saw a beautiful rainbow. I stopped to get a couple of photographs. We soon came to the summit of the hill, at Ladies' View. We were rewarded with the most beautiful landscape that I'd ever seen with a rainbow. In fact, it was a double rainbow for awhile.
Ladies' View is the location in Killarney where Queen Victoria's ladies-in-waiting admired in 1861, and it was named after them. There's a small area for parking and a cafe opposite where the views can be enjoyed. Of course, it was quiet and the cafe was shut for the day. One other car did stop to admire the rainbow while we were. We stopped for a short while, and I got several photographs.
This was the last view before we drove back to Killarney for the evening.
The next day, we woke early to begin our day. Our first stop was to get to Portmagee, a small fishing village along the Ring of Kerry, west of Killarney. The plan was to get the boat from here to Michael Skellig, an island off the coast which is a UNESCO heritage site with beehive huts. The morning was foggy.
The fog cleared, and the weather did not seem too bad, but we did have rain.
We arrived in Portmagee at last. Portmagee is a successful fishing village with a long history in fishing. Boats were also built here. Scallop fishing and lobster/crab fishing are currently done too.
The village also has a New Year's eve celebrating dating back to 1727. Three days after Christmas, a boat from France came into the port and docked. On New Year's Eve, the crew of the French boat started to carry torches and marched through the village. They were led by a piper and in the middle of the group was an old man staggering as they paraded the street. The parade returned to their boat and a shot was heard, and the old man lay on the ground. Another man, a younger one, came out of the boat he and the old man continued the route with the piper to parade again. The French then explained that the old man symbolised the old year and the new man that joined him symbolised the new one. This tradition is still carried out in Portmagee. It's been cited as one of the top three place to be at New Year's Eve for the millennium. In 2008, the parade was led by members of the NY police department band.
We waited to hear some news about our trip on the fishing boat to Michael Skellig, and I ended up phoning them up. Unfortunately, the weather out to sea was too bad and windy, so this was cancelled.
We left Portmagee and carried driving around the Ring of Kerry. As we drove north, we soon realised that the weather on this part of the land was really bad. It was windy and rainy and foggy.
We stopped in a couple of places and took some photographs before continuing on our way back to Kilarney.
We arrived in Kenmare for lunch, and we had lunch here and looked around this small but pleasant village. I got a cupcake as there was a bakery in the town. The lunch was at a hotel's pub.
Kenmare is also the location of a stone circle a short walk from the town centre. Kenmare Stone circle was built in the bronze age (2200 - 500 BC), and is the largest stone circle in the southwest of Ireland. The stone circle was thought to be based on the setting of the sun. The centre of the monument is a burial, known as Boulder Burial, and these are not often found anywhere else except southwest Ireland.
When we arrived, there was already a large group of people looking around the stones. One of them was standing where there was a missing stone for a long time, and she looked strange pretending to be the stone and looking like she was trying to get some source of energy from it. I think I broke the circle as I got impatient waiting for her to move and went to the middle of the stone circle.
After our visit to the stone circle, it was back to the car to go back to Killarney National Park. On the way, we came to a monument based on the town's history. It was once a ghetto, and those who lived in appaling conditions there were offered free passage to America. The film 'Gangs of New York' is based on these people, who had their own support community.
The weather was still not good, unfortunately. We came to some views that would have been beautiful had the sun been out. This was a real pity.
Our next stop would be to take a jaunting car in Killarney National Park and visit Ross Castle, so keep checking back for my other posts on Ireland.
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