Our tour around the Dingle Peninsula started at Inch Beach, where we had better weather in the morning, and went for a walk along the beach. You are allowed to even drive at the beach, but salty sand is nothing we want near our car. Boring but reasonable.
We passed the town of Dingle, where it was very busy with tourists, and stopped at a Lios, an earthen banked ring fort, once a fortified farmstead and later believed to be a place of fairies. But the main attraction were the animals. With the entrance fee you received fodder to distribute between pigs, sheep, donkeys, alpacas and horses.
There are many ring forts found in this area, so we stopped at another one, which still had remains of beehive huts inside the stone circle.
The majority of these ring forts were enclosed farmsteads of the free farmers of the Early Christian Period, which protected their livestock against cattle raiders and wild animals. They were inhabited from ancient times until around 1200 AD.
We continued along narrow roads with luckily no oncoming traffic, as everybody (including big buses) was doing a clockwise circle. At Dunmore Head, we had reached the westernmost point of mainland Ireland.
After the westernmost point, it was time for the westernmost pub: Krugers Bar, where we had Irish Coffee and Dingle Whiskey.
The drinks made it easier to ignore the weather, and we visited our last sight for the day, the Gallarus Oratory.
The stone building, believed to have been a chapel, is the only remaining one of its type in Ireland. No finds or features light shed on the period of construction and use of the oratory.
The stones come from the nearby coast and are cut on every side, to fit perfectly together and slope slightly down to help rain run off the building. The corbel vaulting has the stones positioned with their edges projecting inward by a small increment as the walls rise. Until today, the building is still completely dry inside.
On Brit Stops – an app for campers in GB and Ireland, we had found a pub, the Junction Bar, which allows campers to stay overnight. We had a great dinner and a fine view from their parking.
We are now going northwards, exploring an impressive castle next – more soon!