Ireland '23 - Day 8, 9 & 10 - Ring of Kerry II - Portmagee, Kenmare, Killarney & train to Dublin 

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Portmagee - On Friday (day 8) I woke at 6 am to the sound of sea mist slamming into the windows at 50+ mph, making a metallic sound. Across the street, in parking lot light, I could see small surging waves. 

'Nor man nor beast should be afoot at this hour'...came to mind.   

Over a few cups of Barry's tea, I read until the 8 am breakfast downstairs. Many of the attendees were familiar from the night before, so the tourist season here is still alive.    

Afterwards, clouds lifted & rain stopped, while intense wind continued. Once the car was packed, I noticed the road paving crew, post-breakfast, mobilizing outside the Hotel, in multi-layers, complete rain gear, equal to the elements. The wind was furious, impossible !

I walked over to the foreman and said "I can't believe you guys can work all day in this $&#% weather", and he leaned in & said "so would you ever consider moving to Ireland?". I replied "I always wanted to, until now"....all in good humor.      

With the wind behind me, I was on the main road (N72) to Kenmare by 10 am, and there was little traffic today, a good thing. Below are two local scenery web shots.

Kerry Cliffs, just south of Portmagee

Ring of Kerry drive (see note)

note - this is how the Ring of Kerry looks in good weather. This wide sweep of the bay at Waterville is looking west, back to the two small hills of Valentia Island, in the far distance & just right of center.   

On the curvy 90-minute drive, I stopped just once, at an ocean-side city car park/restroom at Waterville, where the wind was so strong I could barely get out of the car, or back in.  

On the road just south of Waterville part of a well-branched (but not huge) tree was hanging horizontally across the road in my lane & at eye level.  The road was narrow, curvy and busy, so I had no choice but to plow into it. It caused no apparent damage.

Kenmare - It was good to get to this small town, with only two main streets. I stayed at Davitt's Guesthouse on Henry St. & was directed to park off a back alley, just behind the kitchen, possibly the only overnight patron, once again.  

Kenmare is a colorful town, "20 miles inland from the raging Atlantic" as Fodors says. It was a calm & overcast afternoon, and I went for a walk down by the sleepy Kenmare River & tidal marshland, and then back through town alleys to a Neolithic stone circle, on higher ground.    

note - you can enlarge any part of a picture by left-clicking in and then out again (with some exceptions). 

	walk along Kenmare River				turn around point
		tidal marsh		stone circle

I had 6 pm dinner at Davitt's on a Friday night, and only a small number of diners were there, another sign of the end of the tourist season?   

I sat near the beer taps, where the women servers hung out, and spoke about the need to relocate soon, like to the Mediterranean, to stay employed. This is Europe, I realized, with a fluid job market, especially in the hospitality industry. Some were returning to University.... 

On Saturday morning, I was the only attendee at the 8 am breakfast & ended up having an enjoyable 45-minute chat with the woman server, possibly the manager's wife. I noticed that the bar had a Tom Crean Brewery beer on tap and asked about it. 

She said that Tom Crean's great-grand daughter (Eileen) until recently had a popular restaurant in Kenmare, but then closed it & opened a brewery, w/rooms, just one street over. 

Around 9 am, I walked 5 minutes to the Tom Crean Brewery to get photos. Who is Tom Crean ?....see Postscript below.

	next street over		I stayed on Henry St.		at Davitt's Guesthoue
		I bought a woolen cap here the day before		City Park with impressive tree
	Tom Crean Brewery		Antarctic explorer, see Postscript		see note

note - This is Upper Killarney Lake on an overcast & cold day, looking south, from a road stop on the N72. T

Between Kenmare & Killarney, the N72 is amazingly narrow & curvy, and one-lane bridges suddenly appear, but thankfully it was uncrowded. The weather was so cold & drab that I passed up the chance to take a walk I had wanted to do for months in advance, and instead arrived in Killarney early, checked in at Castle Court Hotel & dropped off the car keys at the rental office in Killarney.

Then I wandered around town, and being Saturday, it was a little crowded with locals. 

The City cleverly arranged to have street musicians in different places tie into the town's speaker system, for a few songs or tunes at a time. On a side alley, I came upon a fiddler playing the tune from Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, and it was being broadcast across town.

It was stunning, and the fiddler was talented, and I was teary-eyed a bit.      

view from hotel room in Killarney

On day 10, a cold & sunny Sunday, at 12:30 pm, I boarded a non-stop train to Dublin, and during the next three hours saw a lot of empty fields with horses and trees arrayed in fall colors. Once again it was "mind the gap, and, thank you for riding nor here nor there".

Back at Heuston Station at 3:30 pm, I had another Nero coffee in the Victorian station for 30 minutes. 

Later after a 10 minute cab ride, I checked into Camden Court Hotel, and soon found Doris, Mary & Roger, in the lobby/mezzanine restaurant, having drinks with friends. All were de-compressing from their 10-day bus tour with 120 others, enjoying the first few hours of being 'free birds'.  

Mary & Roger left to attend The Elders last concert, somewhere nearby, while Doris & I had dinner with her friends Sandra & Lee. Lee was a good conversationalist, with a scientific background, and we hit it off well, and Doris and Sandra, long-time friends, were equally engaged.

From a Mezzanine window seat, I looked out onto Camden St., where it was a cold & rainy Sunday night in Dublin, and pedestrians with umbrellas & cars were streaming by, a blur of lights & colors.      

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Postscript - Tom Crean, from Anascaul in Kerry County, Ireland, is a legendary Antarctic Explorer, participating in both of Robert Falcon Scott's expeditions (1903 and 1911), and, being second in command on Ernest Shackleton's (1914) Antarctic failed expedition on the ship Endurance. 

Not much was known about Crean's important contributions until the book Unsung Hero (by Michael Smith) was published, in 2005, one of the best adventure/survival stories ever told (see Bibliography). 

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