Have to see it all: Daytripper, Ireland Style...(Part Two)...Dingle Peninsula bus tour

The Dingle Peninsula is in County Kerry, the county in Ireland that is the most well known and the most visited for it's natural scenic beauty.
It's the next county over from Cork (it's closeness is one of the reasons why I came to Cork city rather than Dublin) and is in the South West of the country. The 'Ring of Kerry' (driving around the Iveragh peninsula) is the more popular of the scenic routes, but thought I'd go on the Dingle tour first so I could try for the Ring of Kerry one with Kate on her upcoming visit to Cork.

I waited till the weather forecast was at least mostly sunny before I booked a one day bus trip with Paddywagon tours to the Dingle Peninsula. In terms of sightseeing it's one of the best benefits of living in one place while travelling and having days off during the week - getting to choose when you can go on things like the tourist bus tours when the time suits rather than squeezing them in and hoping for good weather, like when you are only in a new place for a short time.

Anyway, the weather held out for most of the day and was stunning right up until the sea mist ascended on the bus about an hour from the top of the peninsula. We were able to mostly see the beautiful coastline and outlying islands fairly well, before the clouds and rain came in completely on the return journey (which was mostly retracing a similar route so wasn't too bad).

The view on the way to Killarney from Cork

The bus stopped first in the tourist town of Killarney where we all had about an hour to fill in before meeting up with a few more people coming in from the Paddywagon offices in Limerick and Killarney. Killarney is a pretty town that is basically a part of the Killarney National Park - one side of it is a wall along the park's edge. There were lots of guys offering horse and cart rides down to the lakes ("jaunting carts"). Our driver was called Mike who was Irish but had spent many years in Birmingham in England, so he had a great accent and was a great talker and storyteller.


The houses that basically backed onto Killarney National Park

This is a beautiful lookout we stopped at not far from Killarney, looking out over one of the three lakes in the National Park.

We then got onto the peninsula itself and drove alongside some gorgeous hilly land before stopping at a huge golden sand beach. It was so strange to be on a great beach like this on a bright sunny day in Ireland! All the cars were parked right up on the sand and I felt more like I was in Australia. Across the water you could make the hills of the Iveragh peninsula, where the Ring of Kerry route is.


I love this shot, a group of people out on a horse trek parked up next to an VW van and went off to the beach, it looked so awesome!

Next we stopped off where some 'Beehive Huts' (600 year old monk's dwellings) still stand, looking out over the coast with our first sighting of the Blasket Islands in the distance. The huts are on land owned by an old lady called Mary, who charges people 2euro to walk up the hill and have a look. She likes to invite people in to look at her photo albums of when Tom Cruise filmed a movie there, and the driver knew her so well from so many repeat visits he told us all about the movie and her story, and had a good chat to Mary when we got there as well.

We then got to the top of the peninsula, and passed Europe's most South Westerly point. We stopped at a couple of great lookout points (one called Slea Head) of the outlying Blasket Islands (inhabited till the 1950s still) before heading round back to the fishing town of Dingle for a rest and food stop. We got back to Cork about 7.30pm. Long day but the sights were beautiful!