To All Those We Left Behind In America: Back To The Dingle Peninsula

We finally got a "clear blue sky" and thought it would be a good day to return to one of our favorite towns and drives out to the Dingle Peninsula for the town of Dingle (An Daingean = on dagh-n) and the "Slea Head Drive" (sleigh head) around the end of the peninsula.

With the clearer sky, we actually got a much better view of the "Slieve Mish" Mountain Range that we can see out of our hotel window---a small-sized mountain range, but substantial.

The drive from Tralee out to Dingle isn't all that far and takes you along Brandon Bay---which, along with the Brandon Mountain that is there too, must be named after our grand-nephew, Brandon ;-). (Must be nice to have a bay and a mountain named after you.)

All along the way are more of the big fields for grazing and cropping.

But as you get further out on the Dingle Peninsula, things start getting a lot more rocky with only grazing for sure-footed sheep that you can see on the lower right side of the photo below, with their blue staining to show ownership.

Then, after you go through the town of Dingle and start the "Slea Head Drive," you get to see more of the Atlantic as you get closer to the edge of the peninsula. Still a bit of haze in the sky, but the water was extremely calm.

We think the same seagull was there to greet us that we had seen here last year. In the distance in the photo below, you can see the peninsula that is called "The Ring of Kerry" that is another scenic drive.

As we got closer to the end of the peninsula on the "Slea Head Drive," the road winds and narrows so that you feel very close to the sea below and the mountain above.

At the very end of the peninsula is "Slea Head" and they've marked the spot with religious statuary.

As you continue around the end of the peninsula, the road continues its curvy and narrow way.

Out from the end of the peninsula are the "Blasket Islands" which were still occupied by some hardy families up until the 1950's. They still offer ferry rides to the islands for guided tours of the abandoned community and the vast range of birds nesting on the islands---although we only saw sea gulls along our drive.

There was a lovely, sheltered beach just past the end of the peninsula as well. We could make out a small sailboat and a surfer just out from the beach.

The mountain on the other side of the peninsula has few steep rocks sides and more of the steep grazing fields.

The "Slea Head Drive" ends up back in Dingle Town, so we stopped to visit a few of the shops and have lunch.

We headed back to Murphy's Pub for their "pub grub."

And for dessert, just up the street at Murphy's Ice Parlor, the clever Irish offer you the chance to get drunk on ice cream with the offer of two powerful flavors--- "Bailey's Irish Cream" and "Chocolate Whiskey" and, of course, we supported the Irish economy and made the purchase.

As we were leaving, we noticed the tide was out on Dingle Bay and people were out digging in the mud for what we presume would be clams or mussels.

Instead of taking the main road back to Tralee, we thought we'd be brave and take the higher "Connor Pass" road back. Other than being a steeper and windy climb up the mountain, it was a nice wide road.

When we got to the top at the "Connor Pass" we had a great view down the mountain.

And Sue got right up to the fence to get the view all the way down.

Way off in the distance, we got a long view of the Atlantic as it enters Brandon Bay.

Then, as we headed down off the mountain, we discovered why it is considered a "scenic route." The easy climb on the way up turned into an extremely narrow and winding, single lane road. As you met cars, you pulled right up to the edge of the cliff---and pulled in the side mirror---for all to get by.

And some of the drivers just zip along like they were on the freeway (as we cringe on the side of the road, hoping we won't be paying for the replacement of our side mirror or worse).