Driving the Rings: Ring of Kerry, Ring of Beara

We spent the week of Pia's 10th birthday travelling 2 of Ireland's most beautiful roads - the Ring of Kerry and the Ring of Beara.

Given her love of foxes, Pia of course chose a fox design for her birthday cake, which she decorated all by herself.

Ella decorated her own mini cake to mark the occasion as well!

Celebrating with Sylvia before her return

On our way down to Killarney, where the Ring of Kerry begins, we passed though the village of Adare, famous for its traditional thatched cottages. I would love to live in one of these!

After staying in a lovely B&B in Killarney, we headed off the next moring to travel the Ring of Kerry. There are so many opportunities for photo stops so you will have to excuse the large amount of photos I will post below. So much spectacular scenery....

Not far out of Killorglin....

The biggest leaves we've ever seen. The girls could have used one as a towel if they weren't so rough!

Ella discovered a love of rock surfing along the way...

The pretty little town of Caherciveen

where we found this!!

At Portmagee, we crossed the bridge over to Valentia Island which also had stunning views, and plenty of sheep!

Views from the Fogher Cliffs

 

The views from the top of the cliffs

And more rock surfing!!

The pretty little fishing village of Portmagee

We were intrigued by the Skellig Islands which lie about 1 1/2 hours from Portmagee by boat. The larger island, Skellig Michael, is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and was another one of these extremely isolated sites that monks chose to live in Ireland. They must have been very committed to the cause to settle here, as it is extremely remote and exposed to the elements. But from the 6th until about the 13th century they did live here and you can visit the monastic ruins today. However, it is not a child-friendly site with its 630 steps, no handrails and sudden windblasts so we gave that experience a miss!

More beautiful scenery near Ballinskelligs, where we visited the fantastic Skellig chocolate factory and enjoyed an overload of chocolate tastings!

The beach at Waterville

Just when we thought the scenery couldn't get any better we saw the views from around Caherdaniel. Mind you, at this point the girls were over the views and at this spot refused to get out of the car! The photos really do not do it justice.

We stayed the night in Sneem at the stunning Parknasilla Resort. It was a gorgeous hotel, set on a lake with a forest walk in the hotel grounds. The girls absolutely loved the fairy walk in the forest - there were about 15 little fairy houses hidden in the forest. It reminded us of something out of the Enchanted Forest!

The fairy houses begin....

The view from our hotel window - sunset is at about 10 pm at the moment.

The nest day we explored the village of Sneem, which James was particularly interested in as this was where French President Charles de Gaulle holidayed during the summer.

The momument to De Gaulle

Loving the pink pub!

We then finished the Ring of Kerry drive in Kenmare and began the Ring of Beara. We did cut this drive short due to the children in the backseat who, I as mentioned, were well and truly over scenic drives!

At Lauragh, we decided to cut across the ring and travel the Healy Pass Road. This takes you over the mountains and the views (again!!) were amazing. So far, we had not yet seen mountains like this in Ireland.

We stayed the night in Kenmare, and Pia woke up here on her 10th birthday to a couple more fox toys and a glorious sunny day!

We spent the day in the Killarney National Pak. Below is the Torc Waterfall.

The Green and Gold (above)!

We then visited Muckross Farms, which recreate 3 traditional working farms from about the 1930s. It was very interesting to see how people lived and worked in those times, especially the 2 room cottage that would have housed about 10 children!

We took a jaunting car (horse and carriage) ride around the park and stopped off at Muckross Abbey (below) before making our way back to Dublin that night.