Stone Forts & the Gap of Dunloe to Killarney

For our second night up high on Geokaun Mountain we were joined by five other motorhomes. Three Belgian (driving spanking new Hymers in a convoy), one British and one Hungarian. No Irish vans up there though. Although we’ve seen tons of Irish-registered vans in Ireland, there didn’t seem to be many on the Ring of Kerry or the offshoots from it? Compared with the very quiet peninsulas to the south, the RoK felt a little more commercialised. Maybe the locals are wise to it all and choose other destinations?

Having spent all of a couple of weeks around here, I’m no expert on Ireland though. The Ring of Kerry loops around the Iveragh Peninsula, which appears to have the distinction of a road wide enough (in most places) for full-sized tourist coaches. And a fair few smaller (posher) ‘executive travel’ buses. The scenery on this peninsula is beautiful for sure but, in my humble opinion, no more so than the others we’ve ambled about on to the south. It seems to be the fact there’s an N road, plus the efforts of the tourist board, which makes this particular Irish circuit so popular with foreigners.

With the coaches come plenty of tourists, and they’ve dollars to spend, literally green backs from the accents we’ve heard. With the demand comes the supply. Shops selling anything and everything green, sheepy and shamrocky. Trestle tables in the lay-byes flogging stuff. Rugged blokes appeared from time to time with animals. One impressively-bearded chap (I was a bit jealous) sat in one of Sneem’s commons with a couple of massively-horned goats. A cap sat on the ground half full of US dollars and euro notes.

[No goat photo here, as I was too tight to pay for one, sorry folks. But if you Google ‘Sneem Goat Man’ you’ll find him!]

As we left Valentia Island (a highlight of the peninsula for me), we spotted fresh peat had been cut from a bog and laid out in rows to dry. A sign on one of the Geokaun Mountain viewpoints said the local ladies used to carry the stuff across the islands on their backs. And we’ve seen it for sale in sacks or compressed into blocks in the villages along our route. One chap told us it’s now illegal to sell, and they were just getting rid of their stock. It seems anyone with personal rights to cut from a bog can still burn it for their own use, as plenty of folks must surely be doing with energy costs having rocketed.

We rejoined the N70 road and then took a detour near Cahersiveen to see a couple of ring-shaped stone forts. Pulling into the small parking area, an enterprising local was busy thrusting a lamb into the arms of bewildered tourists as they climbed out of their hire car. He later ignored us, very wise! Two forts are accessible for free via footpaths, called Cahergall and Leacanabuaile. No-one seems to be sure how old they are, but they’re a romantic spot, impressive for their drystone architecture and natural setting. A young sheepdog legged it about testing his teeth on us as we looked around inside the forts.

I should add that we’ve not driven all the Ring of Kerry. Coming from the south we opted to do it clockwise, and haven’t driven the mountain section between Kenmare and Killarney. That part is said to be an impressive bit of road, and we may yet end up going that way, as we’re truly abysmal at planning.

We’ve been umming and arring about where to go after the Ring of Kerry. Our ferry is booked for 10 days from Dublin, so we’ll need to strike north at some point. There are motorways from Limerick and Cork though, so we can make quick progress once we get to them. The Dingle Penisula looks like a good way to spend a few days, and that was our plan until it wasn’t. I can’t quite remember what happened, but it happened after we pulled in at Killorglin to get some groceries, finding it heaving-busy on a Sunday afternoon. After doing our laundry, we ended up heading for the Gap of Dunloe instead.

The Gap is a tourist road. As far as I can tell, it’s only ever been a tourist road. It doesn’t seem to have any other purpose than wowing us wanderers (and letting the locals who live on it head to the shops or move their animals). The road’s crammed into a 25,000 year old glacial valley, which itself separates two mountain ranges: the MacGillycuddy Reeks and Purple Mountain. We’re not talking the Alps here folks, the MacGillycuddys top out at 1,038m on Ireland’s highest peak, Carrauntoohil, about the same height as Snowdon. The Gap passes through much lower hills than that but the road’s been attracting tourists for many decades, and we could see why.

We’d recently seen Kat’s video of driving a motorhome over the Gap, but decided we wouldn’t bother. It’s narrow, but wide enough and it’s a public road. If you set off early (8am or earlier I guess) you’d miss most of the hire cars, hikers, jaunting cars (pony traps), motorbikes, cyclists and occasional nutcase runner. We rarely get moving before 10am though, and didn’t much fancy running a gauntlet of angry Irish horsemen armed with whips.

Instead we walked it, having stayed the night outside a church we found on Park4night (N52.060598, W9.651155). We shared the parking with a German motorhome and a young French couple squeezed into a Citroën Berlingo with their dog. Nothing was happening at the church on a Sunday evening, and the locals seem to tolerate vans staying there. It’s a freebie, out of the way and only a couple of miles from the daytime-only parking at Kate Kearney’s Cottage, the start of the Gap.

As drizzle fell, I ran from the church to the start of the Gap and a couple of miles up it, returning to the news our water heater has packed up. Sh*t. Cold water flowed, but when we turned the taps to hot, nothing came out. We’ve a slight leak on a drain-down valve, which has been letting air in on this trip. But if we just left both taps on hot, it pushed all the air out after a few minutes of gurgling. This time, no amount of time would push the air out and we both ‘enjoyed’ cold showers, Wim Hof style.

This morning we drove to Kate’s Cottage, got parked up easily and did the walk, about 4 miles up to the Head of Dunloe and another 4 back. The road continues for another 3 miles after the Head, but we’d seen enough and an 8 mile walk was plenty for us. We really enjoyed the slow pace, no driving stress and plenty to catch the eye. Multi-coloured lambs, giant tumbles of rock, ribbons of road, tiny stone bridges, high waterfalls, lakes and the impressive canter of the jaunting car shire horses.

Back at the van we knocked up some pasta and stabbed at the map. With the water heater irritatingly not working, we opted to blow some cash and get into a campsite for a couple of days to try and sort it (or at least have a hot shower). Looking for one close to a town and walks, we’ve headed down to Flesk Camping in Killarney. On first impressions, the town looks a kind of Irish equivalent to Keswick. We’ve not been off the site yet (N52.042935, W9.499688), but have VERY much enjoyed being able to chuck all our rubbish in the bins (they’re a rare find in Ireland). I’ve also enjoyed the longest shower I’ve had in weeks.

After a bit of push-me-pull-me on the water heater’s frost control valve, the hot water taps have magically started working again, HUZZAH!!! I’m relieved, as I’d imagined all the shaking the van’s suffered on the rough roads had dislodged some calcium inside the heater and clogged it up. Maybe it did and has unclogged itself? Dunno. I do know I love it when the van fixes itself though.

Right, enough. We’re eyeballing a wander into the big smoke, but I need another dose of caffeine and a biscuit first folks. Cheers, Jay