Dub23 day 4

start of the walk

Torq Waterfall

the start of 5 minutes of stair climbing

old road to Kenmare (abandoned)

Mangerton Mtn. at 3,000 ft.

old Kenmare road again, see note

the modest creek above the spectacular falls

gradual walk downhill

western hemlock

Lakes of Killarney in a hard rain

Mangerton mountain again

Monterrey Cypress on Muckross Lake

Ireland '23 - Day 4 & 5 - Dublin to Killarney

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On Monday, after another early breakfast, there was plenty of time to re-organize into compressible bags, and I was packed by 8:30 am. That gave me an hour to walk SE to see Merrion Square, then back to the Grand Canal. Both ways I tried a new route, with minimal online guidance.

Back at Heuston Station for an 11 am boarding, I enjoyed another Nero coffee and talked with a couple going to Cork on the same train, who had been in Dublin visiting two generations of offspring.

note - you can enlarge any part of a picture by left-clicking in and then out again (but not with smatphones).

LUAS tram on Harcourt		Georgian style buildings near Stephen's Green
	Merrion Square		nice to see Black Eyed Susan blooms so far north

	goodbye to a great hotel		Heuston Station

It was a two-hour train ride to Kilarney, heading SW on larnod Eireann (Irish Rail). We were cruising at 80 mph through open farmland & small town stops came up every so often. At every one, a few automated messages were heard, like "mind the gap" and the last one is always "thank you for riding larnod Eireann, which in spoken Gaelic sounds exactly like "nor here nor there".

It was amusing....."mind the gap, and, thank you for riding 'nor here nor there'.

There was a 10 minute train switch at Mallow, the main route being to Cork, and the next train headed straight west for 50 minutes. As you approach Killarney, the scenery keeps improving.

The town is in a gorgeous setting, with large lakes & impressive mountains, all around. Tourists have been coming here for 200+ years. Sir Walter Scott and later Queen Victoria brought this area to the attention of wealthy Europeans, promoted as being like England's Lake District, which is totally inaccurate.

Killarney National Park starts in town, and there are miles of walking trails near the lakes, with paved roads for the benefit of the "jaunting cars", or horse-drawn lorries, and a separate system of dirt or gravel crossing paths for walkers/bikers.

	Randle's w/restaurant to the left		the only pelicans in Killarney		view of mtns. from my room
		Monday afternoon on one of the main streets

It was a quiet Monday afternoon in Killarney. I purchased hiking socks at a small outdoor equipment store and had a coffee at a French Cafe. Killarney of course has a lot of restaurants and pubs, some which have traditional Irish music every night of the year. You can always recognize traditional Pubs by the smokers lounging around outside.

Randle's is situated on a natural bluff, so the dining room looks over the local rooftops to the surrounding mountains. A small natural gas fireplace adds ambience & the food here was impressive.

On Tuesday, I was up early again, enjoying Barry's tea while reading the Judge's book, prior to an 8 am breakfast. An inch of rain plus wind was predicted for that day.

Torq Waterfall - I was the only one on the 9 am HOHO bus to the waterfall car park & took the moderate (blue) trail. It was a little rainy, but not cold or windy.

I saw 2 joggers and 2 other hikers out, and the falls loop was 4 miles rt with at least 500 ft. of gain, an easy walk.

note - the old single lane Kenmare road may be in poor condition, but it makes a great & isolated mtn. bike ride of 36 miles from Kenmare to Killarney, gaining 1,800 ft.

Muckross House - Descending steadily from the Torq car park, I somehow walked past the Muckross estate for about a half-mile before realizing I'd missed a turn. As I headed back, intense wind caused sideways rain, so I was wet & cold when I finally arrived at the Muckross House entrance.

Inside it was overly warm, so I enjoyed a relaxed stroll through the place. I didn't know the first thing about it. There are 65 rooms, but tourists only see 15 of them. The most important rooms had informative docents, usually with a captivated audience, which I tended to breeze past.....

History - A wealthy American family from Philadelphia - Henry Arthur Herbert and his wife, watercolorist Mary Balfour Herbert - built the house in a Tudor style and moved into the place in 1843 (there's more below, see Postscript).

Muckross House, cont'd - From a second floor window, I noticed that the parking lots outside were full, so a lot of people had to be visiting today, even on a crappy weather day. But one of the main attractions is the Garden Cafe, with a large & impressive hot food layout, highly regarded & mentioned in guide books, a magnet for foodies.

I had a scone & Americano, content to dry out & observe. The majority of the diners appeared to be Irish, mostly my age & older, nicely dressed, and probably having a "grand day out"......enjoying a fall lunch feast, after touring a fancy old House. And maybe celebrate the end of the tourist season?

The grounds are vast & worth exploring, for instance, there's a nearby Abbey ruin with a maintained walled garden, plus forests w/giant trees, and of course the lakes. You can walk back to town from here, too, along the Lakes. But not today.

Being the last passenger on the bus back to town, the driver kindly let me off across from Randle's. It was time for dry clothes, Barry's tea, and more reading.

Later in the day the rain stopped, so I walked into town again, with no purpose. I got a coffee and read posted menus at a few places but settled for dinner at Randle's, once again. At 5 pm it was completely uncrowded and service & food were great.

Go to next page - Knights Town & Portmagee

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Postscript - The Herbert family eventually sold Muckross House to the Guinness family, who used it for some time as a hunting lodge & later sold it to the Bourn family, wealthy Californians.

In 1932, after residing in the home for two generations, the family presented the house and 11,000 acres to the Irish Nation as a gift, and it soon became the first National Park in the Republic of Ireland, and formed the basis of the more modern (and much larger) Killarney National Park. (all from wikipedia)

Go to next page - Knights Town & Portmagee