Day 8 - Ring of Dingle

Driving the Wild Atlantic Way and
wanted a photo in front of the sign. 

A short update on yesterday's post. I should have mentioned that one of the English penal laws banned Catholics from taking mass. Churches were watched, so priests would serve mass in the countryside at sites where the portal tombs were, like yesterday's Cooms Tomb. These tombs were then became known as Altar Tombs or Mass Rocks.

An alter stone/tomb

A couple words about today's loop around the Dingle Peninsula. Rain. Wind. Clouds. Fog. Wind. And more wind. We knew the forecast was for rain, but still is a bit of a shock after our week of nice weather.  

Wind and rain and fog 

Our first stop was Inch Strand (beach). We walked out on the sand for a bit. It's a long and wide beach. Deserted at this time of the day and year. The waves were quite high. Surfable. There was a surf school truck on the beach, so there must be Irish surfer dudes.

Inch Strand

We then drove on through the town of Dingle, but didn’t stop. Dingle is the largest town on the peninsula, but with only about 1500 people. The peninsula population is only about 16,000, so quite small. 

Near Dingle is Cashel Murphy, another of the many stone forts in the area. This one is a bit smaller, with lower walls, but contains several internal rooms, all circular in shape. As with most of the forts, little is known of the inhabitants, other than the skills and abilities to build such structures.

Next up were several scenic views of the coast. As you can see, we got some great shots of clouds and not much else. Oh well... 

The next stop was a museum called the Blasket Center. The Blaskets are a group of islands just off the Dingle coast. The islands were inhabited at various times by stone age people, monks, and farmers. However, in the 1950’s the population had dwindled to only 22, such a low-level that they were moved off the island. The museum celebrates their lives and lifestyles, including maintaining the Irish language. It was quite fascinating, especially a literary tradition that came from the islanders telling their stories.

The west coast in general is proud of their Irish heritage. The Irish language is spoken more here, and there are also signs in Iris only, unlike the east where signs tend to be in both English and Irish. 

Our next 3 stops were all middle ages Christian sites. 

Riasc was an early Christian monestary site, used from about 500-800 AD. The walled site contains the remains of  several "beehive" huts, called that for their shape, and an oratory. An oratory is a small church. The site also contains several stones with religious shapes carved into them.

Gallup Oratory was next. It is the most complete beehive structure in Ireland, but  there is some debate about both its age and use. The name oratory implies that use, but there have been other suggestions. Other beehive structures have been dated to pre-1000AD, suggesting a similar age.

The final structure we visited was Kilmalkedar Church. Some form of church has been present here since the 600’s. The current ruin was built in the 12th century, in the "new" Romanesque style, and is thought to have been a replacement for earlier beehive type buildings. The church is noted for an ogham stone, an early cross, a sundial, and an alphabet stone. Even in the rain, it’s a lovely church. The archway into the church is quite simple, with intricate but not gaudy stone work.

Ancient sundial. It would have a stick in it. 

We then headed to Listowel, our stop for the night. We drove through Conors Pass where normally you would see spectacular views of the entire peninsula. As you might  guess, we saw...nothing but the inside of a cloud.

Listowel was intended to be just a stopover point, with no particular historical interest. We did find out that they had just finished a week of horse racing, so the town was very quiet, with many places closed. A couple of days for a recovery period for the town. In Ireland, the horse race tracks each host about 1 week of racing during the season. The town also hosts a writes event each year.  We visited one of the oldest pubs in town, named the John B. Keane, one of the towns most famous authors.

Next up is the Cliffs of Moher. Rain or shine.