We learned a new word today. "AdBlue". Apparently that is what you have to add to your diesel rental car when the "check UREA system" message appears. Not sure why the rental company doesn't alert you to that or fill it prior to rental. Luckily it’s available at most gas stations. And this attendant was nice enough to fill it for us. Now we have a large canister sloshing around in our trunk.
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Ad Blue gets injected into the fuel line to help make
the fuel release less harmful emissions
or something to that effect. |
Then off we went on our Ring of Kerry loop. ROK is one of the most popular (touristy) spots in Ireland. It's part of the Wild Atlantic Way. Basically a coastal road system that runs the entire Atlantic coast of Ireland. Twisty roads, cloud covered mountains, beaches, cliffs, and Irish history including stone age tombs, forts, and Irish Independence. Alot to cover in one day.
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| Ladies View - Our day started rather cloudy but the sun peaked through from time to time and it was truly beautiful. |
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| Most flowers are done blooming but one still sees a little Heather…it’s past its prime…our Heather can relate. |
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| There are still lots of patches of gorse also. |
Our first couple stops were in the Killarney National Park. Ladies View and Molls Gap were picturesque stops in the park. Higher up, so you look down on the lake that comprises the center of the park.
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| Molls Gap |
Next up was a stop at Derrynane House, the home of Daniel O'Connell. Daniel was instrumental in using peaceful means to repeal many of the English penal laws that had limited Catholic rights in Ireland. He also was the first Irish Catholic voted into the English House of Commons. The house sits by the seaside and is/would have been a peaceful place to "hide out", away from his public life.
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| House with attached chapel to the right. |
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| Daniel in his younger days |
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| House chapel |
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| The lovely beach area near the house |
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| Cemetery and old ruins where his wife Mary was buried. He was buried in Dublin. Probably would it have been his choice. |
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| One of many large plant specimens in the house gardens. |
Several more scenic stops followed before we headed to the Cooms Portal Tomb. Like many others, it was located in the middle of a farmers field. As we got out of the car, a herd of cows came down the road, forced us to move the car. The farmer showed us where to park so we would be out of the way. Only in Ireland.... Randy was the only one who braved the field gate and electric fence that protected the field in order to view the tomb up close.
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| An Ogham Stone |
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| Time to move the car. They were coming at a pretty good clip. |
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| Randy’s photos of the tomb from up close and from all sides. |
Feeling a bit hungry, we headed to the Skellig Chocolate Factory for a tasting. The factory was founded about 30 years ago by a Scottish lady and has been growing ever since. We sampled 6 or 7 chocolate bars and purchased a couple favorites. We failed to take photos inside the shop or of our purchases! But flavors include Dark Chocolate Whiskey Truffles and White Chocolate with Lime, among others.
Our final stop before heading back to Killarney was the Cahergal Stone Fort. There is quite a bit of uncertainty about the age of the fort. Could be anywhere from 400BC to 1000AD. Regardless, it is quite an impressive structure, and would have been home to a local ruler or king. It’s estimated there may have been up to 50,000 of these structures in Ireland at one point. Numerous stone examples exist, as well as ones where just mounds of dirt remain.
Shortly after leaving the stone fort we saw piles of cubed dirt along the road and realized it was harvested peat moss. Bogs are carefully protected now but this field was allowed to cut it. Randy spoke with a man. And his son who were gathering bags of peat moss to burn. He said they burn about a bag a day.
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| Piles of peat moss ready to be bagged and burned. |
After a lot of driving and site seeing, we ended up back in Killarney, where we had pizza and empanadas for dinner at an Argentinian restaurant.
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| A Blue cheese pizza in the left, pepperoni in the center and garlic bread on the right. |
Tomorrow we head over to the Dingle Peninsula for another loop of Irish scenery and history.
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