Tuesday, June 12, 2018. The Drombeg Stone Circle and Bantry House

At breakfast I once again had the “full Irish” – sausage, bacon, black and white pudding, mushrooms and eggs, while Abby had eggs Benedict with spinach instead of ham. We jumped into the VW and headed southwest toward the Drombeg Stone Circle, which is not mentioned in Fodor’s but is described on line as the most beautiful stone circle in all of Ireland. A human burial in the middle of the circle has been dated to about 1000 B.C., but the circle itself could be older than that. Like Stonehenge, the entrance to the circle of standing stones is aligned with the setting sun at the time of the winter solstice. In this case, the entrance is defined by two portal stones that are taller than the others.

Also at the site are the remains of a couple of stone huts and a trough for cooking. The trough would have been filled with water and then hot rocks from a nearby fire would have been rolled into it to bring it to a boil. It was amazing to be at a site that was used for cooking and religious ceremonies at least three thousand years ago.

Most surprising to me were the modern offerings of coins, flowers, small stones and paper/cardboard objects that were left on a flat rock in the middle of the stone circle. The cardboard objects looked like cards from a Dungeons and Dragons-type game that involved druids. I find Christianity to be ancient and mysterious; to see that people attempt to follow even older druidic religions involving circles of standing stones was amazing to me. The site, as in ancient times, was beautiful, overlooking freshly mown hayfields divided by stone walls with the Irish Sea in the distance.

We hiked past fuchsia hedges back to the car and then pushed on to Bantry, where we had lunch in the city center at O’Connor’s Seafood Restaurant. Abby enjoyed an open-faced crab salad sandwich on homemade brown soda bread, while I ate a delicious pan-seared hake with a basil-bread-crumb topping. Mashed potatoes, carrots and cooked red cabbage with a vinegar dressing came on a separate plate and were referred to collectively as “vedge.” Abby was served a mushroom-thyme soup that had too much thyme in it for my taste.

After lunch we drove back to the Bantry House and Gardens, which we had passed on the way into town. One of the best features of Bantry House is the view, overlooking Bantry Bay and its islands. The Earls and Countesses had beautiful views from their second-floor bedrooms. Our guide told us that they owned everything they could see, which was quite a bit - many square miles. The current family lives on the third floor and are no longer nobility, because Ireland is a republic. They support themselves by selling tickets to tourists who wish to see the house and by operating a bed and breakfast. Their real estate holding is down to 100 acres. 

Fodor’s lists Bantry House as one of the top four stately houses in Ireland, because of its beautiful view overlooking the bay, and because of its extensive collection of art, tapestries and fine French furniture. Our guide told us that the family had considered selling some of the artifacts to make money, but the Irish government would not allow them to leave the country, so the proposed auction never took place. From our point of view, it was better to have the house as a private museum, complete with its collection of Aubusson tapestries, state portraits of George III and Queen Charlotte, and furniture that belonged to Marie Antoinette.

From Bantry we drove mostly north through Glengarriff, Kenmare, Moll’s Gap, and the Killarney National Park to Killarney. We were following written directions to the Killarney Royal Hotel, because my cell phone does not have service in Ireland and therefore I do not have GPS except when using hotel wifi. After driving all the way to the other side of Killarney, we stopped at a filling station and asked for directions. One of the patrons gave me directions, which we followed until we felt lost again. I parked the car illegally and got out to ask for more directions, and found that I was looking right at the Killarney Royal Hotel’s sign on the side of its building. What a welcome sight!

After checking in, we walked less than a block to Lord Kenmare’s restaurant for supper. This time Abby enjoyed the hake and I ordered rump of lamb, which was every bit as good as lamb chops. The server encouraged me not to order it any more cooked than medium, and I informed her that I preferred medium rare. It was delicious, and Abby reported that the hake was as well.

Even though we had to stop once to ask directions, we felt much more successful about finding the hotel in Killarney than we did in Cork. We retired feeling satisfied with our day as tourists as well as navigators without GPS.