More Ireland - Dingle Peninsula

Tuesday 16 August: Dingle Peninsula

The Ring of Kerry may be more famous, but the Dingle Peninsula has by far the better scenery. Helped no doubt by the fact that the sun came out today, and we saw some blue sky.

From Castleisland we headed west to Tralee, an attractive town with a combination of "Olde Irishe" and modern architecture. From there we headed west along the northern coast of the peninsula, dropping in to some of the sea-side towns and villages.

The road rose steeply away from the coast, and become more narrow and twisting than ever. It reminded me of Arlo Guthrie's Motorcycle Song - "On one side of the mountain road there was a mountain. On the other side of the mountain road there was nothin'- a cliff in the air".

Although this is a two-way road, it's only one lane wide and cars have to find tiny little pull-off areas to allow opposing traffic to pass. This is Connor's Pass - the main north-south route over the peninsula.

Having successfully negotiated the pass, we passed through Dingle - another lovely Irish town ruined by too much traffic in the narrow streets.

We headed out to Slea Head, the western-most part of the peninsula. This is spectacular scenery, with steep hills falling into the Atlantic Ocean, and a lot of off-shore islands.