Ireland: Dingle Peninsula- Part 7

 Disclaimer: Some of the pictures below are M's. 
Our last day trip was to the Dingle Peninsula. We had a choice between there or the Ring of Kerry, and M suggested this one. We rode on a minibus for the Slea Head Drive. Our driver kept us laughing, especially when he waved to a man walking down the street and announced that he knew him!
The Aran Islands were beautiful and the Dingle Peninsula was just as breathtaking. Our first stop was the beach at Inch Strand.

It was a little cold, so no dipping our toes in the water for us! M had been there before, and she remembered the lady in the gift store had a yellow lab, much like her previous dog.

As you can tell, the weather was seriously overcast and was misting part of the day. Apparently, that is par for the course for this area.

This is a house that is across the road from Inch Strand

We got back on the bus for more gorgeous countryside:

And more coastline:

Our driver told us about the Blasket Islands, which once were inhabited until young people left to go to uni and didn't return. The older inhabitants were moved off the island. Some immigrated to  Massachusetts. I can't imagine how hard life was on the islands, with the cold wind blowing and having to be self-sufficient. 

You can take a ferry to the islands and spend the day there.

At the top of Slea Head, we saw this:

Statues of Jesus and/or Mary are a common occurrence all over Ireland. The driver said that people would erect them in times of strife or extreme difficulty.

Mustn't forget about the sheep we saw!

Another view with the Blasket Islands in the background

A scene from the new Star Wars movie was filmed here. I'm not a fan, so I'm not real sure exactly where the scene was filmed, so I just took plenty of pictures!

It was an incredibly windy day!

Another interesting thing was saw was the beehive hut complex:

One of M's pictures

This is obviously M's picture!

Another one of M's pictures

No mortar was used in building the complex at all. It is thought that this group was used for domestic housing. It was built on the side of a hill and is thought to be built due to the Normans running the Irish off of the good farming land. I know the sign says "2000 BC", but the information I found dates them around 1200 AD.

We also crossed a piece of countryside where St. Brendan began his voyage to America hundreds of years before Columbus. In 1976, his voyage was reconstructed according to records. Tim Severin proved that it was possible; however, there has not been anything found that would indicate that this happened. (We were on the bus so I didn't take any pictures of this area.)

More sheep...with a dog in the 4 wheeler doing his job.

When we got back into town, we had about an hour or so to eat and look around Dingle a bit.

This is where we had some sandwiches for lunch.

A storefront

I'm not sure what this was about.

I thought this was cool & unusual

And, look what we found up the hill!

Grotto of Our Lady of Fatima...which is the name of the Parish I attend.

Way before we were ready, we had to return to the bus.

View of the harbor

Statue of Fungie the Dolphin. He can be seen in the harbor and he interacts with people in the water.

On the way back to Killarney, we went through Tralee, which is known for its Rose festival. The Rose of Tralee crowns a woman of Irish descent as The Rose. (No pictures since we were on the bus & I wasn't in a good spot.)

We also passed a B&B that was owned by Tom Crean, an Antarctic explorer.

We also saw a rainbow:

The driver pointed out the place where the Jeanie Johnston ship would dock. This ship made 16 trips to North America with no lives lost.

This was perhaps the most entertaining day we had. There was a newlywed couple on the bus with us, and he was hysterical. They, along with the driver, definitely made the trip to Dingle more fun. 

Come back on Monday for the final post on Ireland.