Dingle Peninsula

Great place for a short visit and only 250 mile round-trip from Moyhill. Helped by good weather – top down for a lot of the time but caught out a couple of times by the arrival of a short but very heavy shower.
Only 38 miles to the ferry across the Shannon at Killimer but it took the full hour we had allowed – you really don’t get anywhere fast in the west of Ireland.
Found a great place to stay in Dingle after Linda had rejected the first 3 recommended by the tourist office as not being up to scratch. Also found two great restaurants – the Half Door and The Global Village – two Irish chefs who are making the most of the local fish and seafood. Managed Black Sole, Turbot, Plaice, Haddock, Scallops and Kippers during our stay and it was all very fresh – stopped at the shop at the fish market on our way home and filled the cold bag with enough to feed us for a few more days.
According to the guide book there are 55 pubs in Dingle for a population of only 1,775!! However there were quite a number of tourists around – mostly American which helped to crowd the bars. We were in one place which was a traditional shoe shop on one side and a bar on the other side. The musicians sat behind the shoe shop counter with the punters on a bench on the other side; 30 people in there and it was full.
On Thursday after dinner we wandered across the road and saw Tread – a group of young Irish, Canadian and American musicians who have played with the Chieftains for a number of years and now out on their own – great music and step dancing – in the back room of MacCarthy’s Bar – where else - one of Ireland’s smallest venues.
Didn’t manage the climb up Mt Brandon but did get a great walk at the top of the Connor Pass, also managed walks along the Three Sisters and over the top of Brandon Point – and all in dry sunny weather!