Leaving the beautiful town of Killarney, we began our drive along the Wild Atlantic Way of Ireland in our motorhome Vtee. The “Way” is the longest defined coastal driving route in the world. It traverses Ireland’s Atlantic coast from this southern end where we are, right up to and along the top of Northern Ireland. We plan to travel along it as much as possible, according to road conditions and sights we want to see.
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| Ring of Kerry scenery |
The first part of the Way for us, is a 179 km scenic drive around the Iveragh Peninsula of Ireland’s County Kerry, known as The Ring of Kerry. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site that goes through rugged coastal areas and tiny seaside villages.
We had heard that the roads on the Ring were very narrow, and that it was better to drive the route in an anti-clockwise direction. It seems that the tourist buses drive it this way, so if we travelled clockwise, there was every chance of meeting big tourist buses head-on. So we went anti-clockwise.
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| Wild Atlantic Way scenery |
As we drove on, we had the Atlantic on our right, showing us a coastline of dramatic rocks sprinkled with sandy beaches.
The first village on our route was Killorglin, a lovely and colourful place on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. Our next village was Glenbeigh, another colourful place.
By this time, we had not come across any big vehicles going the other way, so all good.
Reaching the next village, Cahersiveen, we realised that we needed to find a cash machine/ATM. These are in notoriously short supply on the Ring, but we heard there was one in Cahersiveen.
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| Cahersiveen |
Cahersiveen is a delightful little town but it has limited parking, especially for large vehicles like ours. So we ended up parking illegally while Marg ran across the road to the only ATM in town.
Unfortunately, we were spotted by a parking person. Leigh managed to persuade her that we were stopping only for a minute. She watched us until Marg returned with cash in hand, then thankfully, let us go without a fine.
Then we headed to Portmagee, a tiny and colourful fishing village on Valentia Harbour at the western tip of the Ring of Kerry.
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| Portmagee |
We were there because Portmagee is the main harbour from which we could get a boat to the island of Skellig Michael. This island is home to a monastic ruin that is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It also hosts lots of bird life.
The number of people permitted to land on Skellig Michael is highly regulated, and we had heard that prior booking was essential. It seems that local boat operators took bookings months ahead.
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| Portmagee shops with parking behind |
We hadn't booked ahead as we just hadn't had the time or decent web access while on the road. So we found a parking spot behind Portmagee's quaint shops, then went down to the docks and asked around for information on tickets and trips.
What luck - we were able to book a trip with Michael O’Connell departing in two days, at the great expense of €100 each…..and…..we got the last two tickets! We discovered later, that most trips were even more expensive, and that the price had been steadily climbing each year.
After booking our trip and feeing very happy with ourselves, we drove across a nearby bridge to Valentia Island where we had booked a campsite for a few days.
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| Leigh with life jacket on, heading to Skellig Michael |
The trip out along the estuary was in relatively calm water. Then we reached a rocky island that was a major nesting place for gannets. They absolutely covered the rocks, and wheeled and dived above us.
By now, we were out on the open ocean, and the little boat rolled and wallowed horrendously.
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| Off the boat and on firm land at the base of Skellig Michael |
After much hyperventilating and lots of swallowing, we kept our cool and soon reached the rocky island of Skellig Michael. The landing was precarious because it was a small boat and there were big waves pushing us against the rocky pier.
But we were very glad to finally reach land. What a turbulent 90 minutes we'd had!
Then we looked upwards. Skellig Michael towered over us at 218 metres above sea level.
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| Climbing the 618 steps to the top of Skellig Michael |
After the tricky landing then a safety briefing by the warden (apparently people have died negotiating the steep steps), we began our climb up the 618 steps to the top of the island.
On the way, we saw birds everywhere, both in the sky and on the rocks beside us.
Suddenly we saw a puffin, and it was so exciting. We photographed that little bird like crazy before we realized there were many, many more.
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| Our first puffin |
They were nesting in burrows in the steep cliffs and rocks alongside the path. We were able to get so close to them; it was amazing.
They are quite unusual, but cute-looking birds with their bright orange feet and beaks. However, they are rather ungainly when flying – they seem to flap very, very fast to stay in the air.
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| Another puffin |
They are about the size of a seagull but not as aerodynamically built, with little round bodies and quite small wings.
Carrying with on our climb, we negotiated the 618 very steep and rough steps to reach the top of Skellig Michael. And we were well rewarded for our efforts.
At the top, there is an amazingly preserved ruin of a 7th century monastic settlement. Irish Christian monks lived here for 600 years in extremely meagre conditions.
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| Marg with an ancient stone beehive house on Skellig Michael (UNESCO) |
They practised a very simple lifestyle and lived in beehive-shape huts called clocháns. Made of stone in a beehive shape, they are perched above nearly vertical cliff walls. The site is stunning.
As we wandered around, we frequently wondered how they got their food and water up and down this discouragingly rough and steep rock.
While the site is UNESCO, it apparently became more widely known because it was used for filming Stars Wars, with the very rough stone steps, steep cliffs and sea views providing a dramatic backdrop for the movie.
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| Leigh at the top of Skellig Michael (UNESCO) |
As we picked our way down the steep steps back to the boat later, we agreed that the trip had been absolutely amazing. We were blown away by the ruggedness and remoteness of the island, the good condition of the stone beehive houses, and the huge number of puffins.
We were very happy that the trip back was much calmer with the swell of the sea behind us!
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| Knightstown |
Back on Valentia Island, we were enjoying the Valentia Island Caravan and Camping site. It had all the services we needed, and was only a ten-minute walk from the village of Knightstown at the end of the island.
Knightstown is a charming village built in the 1840’s. It has two pubs, a mini-market, two cafes and some tourist shops - so not large, but quite attractive.
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| Marg admiring the view during a picnic lunch on Valentia Island |
While on Valentia Island, we enjoyed some lovely hikes, glad that we were not driving the very narrow roads. We would take a picnic lunch with us and stop frequently to enjoy the stunning scenery.
Happy with our sojourn in this area, we drove off Valentia Island after a few days and continued our trip around the narrow roads of the Ring of Kerry.
We followed the coast and went through little places like Waterville which had a very cute little statue of Charlie Chaplin on the waterfront. Apparently, he used to holiday there.
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| Kenmare |
We visited Sneem and Kenmare, both with pretty coloured houses and shops. Kenmare also had some really lovely looking pubs.
The Ring is a fantastically wild place on the Atlantic coast. It is isolated, very rocky and hilly, and has really narrow roads with no footpaths, which makes it very challenging for walkers and cars alike.
We think the locals must be very hardy, as it is such a wild and lonely place with all the little villages so far from each other.
Toward the end of our drive, we stopped to look at Moll’s Gap which is an interesting gap between two very rocky hills. However, the day was pretty murky so the view wasn’t as good as it could have been.
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| Lakes of Killarney from Lady's View |
We had a similar murky experience at a stop called Lady’s view which looked back over a lot of lakes towards Killarney. We could still appreciate the beauty of the area though, notwithstanding the overcast weather.
Having now completed the Ring of Kerry, we will head north and inland to County Limerick, our next destination.
This is part of a bigger blog on our travels around England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Belgium and Luxembourg. The first blog is called "Off to do the UK in a motorhome".