Slea Head Drive

On Saturday, we woke up to yet another sunny morning and headed northwest to the Dingle Peninsula, a striking place of rocky cliffs, sandy beaches, and dusky mountains, with views that just get better around any corner. As we drove out of County Cork and into County Kerry, the landscape changed dramatically as the mountains rose before us and the sun was blocked out by a dense haze. We had one incident on the way where, going over a narrow bridge, we met a car who was not staying on their side of the road and clipped our side view mirror! Luckily, Greg was able to pop the mirror back into place with no lasting harm done, and it was not an indication of what type of day we would have.

Our first stop was at Inch Strand, a lovely three mile long beach, where we stopped for awhile to wait for the sun to burn through the fog so that we would enjoy better views throughout our tour. From the beach, we continued into the town of Dingle (An Daingean is the official Gaelic name, although the locals have not embraced it and still call it Dingle), a charming town that is also the capital of the Gaeltacht, the official Irish-speaking region of the country. Dingle is the beginning and ending point of the thirty mile Slea Head Drive, a winding loop of the peninsula with many scenic outlooks. The road actually was not bad at all, despite what you may think from the warning sign in an earlier post (of a car driving off a cliff into the water!), and there were plenty of scenic outlooks where you could pull over and enjoy a lingering photo opportunity. Our favorite part of the drive was probably Coumeenoole Strand, a lovely little beach in a cove surrounded by towering cliffs. Returning to Dingle, we stopped for ice cream cones at Murphy's and then headed up into the mountains to Conor Pass, the highest mountain pass in Ireland where, on a clear day, you enjoy breathtaking views of the peninsula. As I may have mentioned before, Ireland had a hard winter and has had an extraordinarily dry spring, so I'm sure Dingle is usually even more beautiful when it is green everywhere. Even without its trademark green, the country here is still absolutely lovely. We concluded our day by returning to Inch Beach, where many people were now enjoying the lovely day. Greg was excited to be able to drive down a beach for the first time; the sand is packed hard and people just drive down the beach and park for the day. We took a long walk up and down the shoreline before beginning our return home.

Our tour of the peninsula really did not take too long, and was a wonderful day trip from Kinsale. We were still absolutely exhausted by the time we reached home, but full of memories - and photographs - of a gorgeous day in a gorgeous place. We are certain that we will return to Dingle in the summer and are already looking forward to it.

Now sit back and enjoy some of the pictures from our day at Dingle!