Tuesday, 25 September 2012
Today we are doing a “day trip”, traveling in County Kerry along the
Ring of Kerry.
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| Killarney Lakes |
First stop is
Kenmare, a beautiful small town at the head of Kenmare Bay. Ireland’s first ‘planned’ town back in 1670; has vibrant colored buildings and was the winner of ‘Tidy Town’ in 2008.
Leaving Kenmare, we traveled the N71 road to
Moll’s Gap, a mountain pass overlooking the
Killarney Lakes and
Macgillycuddy’s Reeks. Moll’s Gap is named after Moll Kissane. She ran a small pub here during the construction of the road from Killarney to Kenmare in the 1820s and sold her illegal home-made whiskey.
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| Kissane Sheep Farm |
We continued on the windy road to
Kissane Sheep Farm, a traditional working sheep farm with about 1,000 mountain sheep and hundreds of lambs. The fifth generation family farm is run by John and Anne Kissane. John showed us how he rounds up the sheep in the mountainous terrain with the help of his working sheepdogs (border collies); using a few commands the sheepdogs knew exactly what to do. In the barn, we watched a sheep shearing demonstration, visited the orphan lambs and heard about life on the farm and challenges of sheep farming today in Ireland.
Continuing on the windy road, we stopped at the “
Ladies View” of the Killarney Valley and Lakes of Killarney. The view is named after Queen Victoria’s ladies-in-waiting, they stopped to look at the scenery from this spot during the Queen’s visit to Killarney in 1861.
On our way back to Killarney, we stopped at the
Muckross House and Gardens, a Victorian mansion was built in 1843. Here we enjoyed the gardens, nature trails and cafeteria.
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| Muckross House |
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| Muckross Gardens |
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Then we had some afternoon “free time”. Mike emptied the coach …dropping some of us at the hotel, others in town and the rest of us in Tralee, where the locals shop.