They say that persistence pays and it certainly did in our case. After the ever-present Irish rain washed out our original plans to drive the Ring of Kerry our second attempt the next day was a success. We embarked from our Airbnb in Killarney and drove the route the opposite way of the tour buses (we drove clockwise) so we weren’t slowed down by the behemoths.
Our first stop was the Staigue Fort. Once we got off the main road of the Wild Atlantic Way the roads weren’t much wider than a typical bike path is in the U.S.
If a car came from the other direction one of us had to find a spot to pull off to the side to let the other through. In Ireland, this somehow works but in the U.S. it would have surely devolved into a stalemate, a fistfight, or worse.
Next stop, the Kerry Cliffs. The landscape here might look familiar if you’re a fan of Star Wars. I may get some flack for this but, in my opinion, these cliffs were even more spectacular than the Cliffs of Moher . This may just be the Star Wars fan in me talking.
The last picture was from the absolute edge of the cliff and we were being buffeted by such heavy wind that it was difficult to hold the camera steady or even stand still.
We stopped for a great pub lunch in a little fishing village on the way to our last stop, Puck Fair.
Label this as something I’d never heard of before we did the Ring of Kerry. Puck Fair, according to legend, began when a wild goat broke free from the herd and came down into the town to warm the town of the advancing English army just in time for them to mount their defenses and fend off the English.
Like most Irish legends, there are alternate versions of this story too. Who knows which of them are true but the three day celebration commemorating the event has survived now for well over four-hundred years, that’s good enough for me.
Click on the YouTube Video below for all of our pictures from the Ring of Kerry. There are many more pictures and stories from our Ireland adventure yet to come!
~Eric Vance Walton~
Thanks for reading! All for now. Remember…trust your instincts, invest in you, live boldly, and take chances.
(Photos and video are original.)
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