Wednesday, June 13, 2018. The Ring of Kerry.

We met Deirdre in the lobby at 9:00 a.m. She has brown hair and blue eyes and was wearing a green jacket, a fuchsia shirt and black pants. She shook hands with both of us and introduced herself. Our first stop was to see Brendan, a man about our own age, demonstrate how a pair of Australian sheep dogs could manage a flock of six black-faced sheep. He used a combination of vocal calls and whistled calls to issue orders to the dogs, who followed them eagerly. The flock of sheep were putty in his hands. He then showed us a pen of many varieties of sheep, including one from the Middle East called Jacob’s sheep that had four horns. It was an interesting experience, and Abby got us admitted for half price because we missed the first half of the demonstration.

We passed the ruined childhood home of Daniel O’Connell, a non-violent agitator for equality for Catholics who was active in the early 1800’s. We entered Cahersiveen and drove past a museum devoted to Daniel O’Connell located in a converted military barracks. We drove across a one-lane bridge to Cahergal ring fort. We could see another ring fort, Leacanabuaile, less than a mile away. In the southerly direction were the ruins of Ballycarberry castle, the 15^th-century home of the McCarthy clan.

Ring forts date from about 500 B.C. and were the homesteads of just a couple of extended families, who would move their livestock inside the forts at night for protection. Rick Steves reports that these ring were signs of prosperity. This region was more prosperous because it had copper that could be mined and sold to make bronze tools. A daub-and-wattle partition was used to separate the livestock from the humans inside the fort, according to Deidre. The path to the fort was dotted with wild yellow iris and magenta foxglove.

On the way to Port Magee, Deidre stopped her green Mercedes minivan at a peat bog that was being harvested for fuel. The peat is cut out of the ground by using long spades and then is stacked in tripods to dry not so much in the sun, because Ireland does not see much sun, but in the wind, of which there is plenty. She showed us a chunk of dried peat about 15 inches long and four inches square. She also pulled up a handful of sphagnum moss and pointed out the round-leaved sundew plants, carnivorous plants that capture small insects and digest them for nutrients.

We then crossed the bridge from Port Magee to Valentia Island to see if the Skellig Islands were visible in the rain and mist. We stopped at a monument to the first trans-Atlantic cable, which was actually the fourth attempt, in 1866. The second attempt, in 1858, had worked for three weeks and then had burned out because of over-voltage. This is the westernmost part of Europe and was deemed to be the best spot to land a communications cable on the European side.  The other end was in Newfoundland. A final cable was laid in 1894 and was used until the advent of satellite communications in 1965.

We could just barely see the Skellig Islands in the distance through the rain and mist. A boat taking passengers to the islands was battling high winds and waves to get there. Deirdre said that, if we wanted to go to the Skelligs, our boat trip had to be booked a year in advance. We did not go. The Star Wars movie that used the Skellig monastery as one of its sets had really popularized the islands.

In Waterville we stopped at the Lobster Bar and ordered lunch at the carvery. I had the seafood pie, similar to a shepherd’s pie but with seafood rather than ground beef, while Abby had creamed chicken and Deirdre had seafood chowder. We shared a bowl of olives and dried tomatoes. Charlie Chaplin liked to spend his summers in Waterville, and there is a statue of him next to the highway. Just outside of town is the Eightercua stone row, a row of four standing stones that the landowner does not allow access to. However, they are visible from the road and I was able to take some pictures of them after Deidre pulled the car over to the side.

We passed a ring fort, barely visible in the mist, and Abbey Island, with its excellent sand beach. Deirdre reported that, even in mid-summer, the water temperature would only be 40 degrees, which is a bit cold for swimming, although it is done on sunny days. We stopped at Moll’s gap where Abby had a Diet Coke and I had a chocolate-hazelnut torte with whipped cream. A woman was operating a hand loom in the shop, and I bought an Irish woolen garment and a postcard as souvenirs. 

Moving on, we stopped at Ladies’ View, which gets its na On the way back from the waterfall, Deidre pointed out a holly tree, a species that does not grow in Minnesota because of the harsh winters, but appears to thrive in Ireland.

me from Queen Victoria’s ladies-in-waiting who expressed pleasure at the view during the queen’s visit in 1861. Our final stop on the Ring of Kerry was Torc Waterfall where Deirdre took some pictures of us, first in front of a rapids and then in front of the waterfall itself. The waterfall gets its name from a wild boar that Finn McCool slew near this spot – “toirc” is the Irish word for boar.

We ate supper in the hotel bistro, where Abby and I both had the confit of duck. Abby’s appetizer was goat cheese while mine was fried brie, both of them coated in panko. The hotel had one man who was serving many roles – concierge, waiter, bellman, etc. At our previous hotels there would have been two or three people doing his job. He was very busy, but nonetheless provided good service.