A beautiful sunny day – Happy Third Anniversary, Jim! Thank you for this trip!
Our host Justin arranged our stays for the next two nights, in places not in our guidebooks, and told us of a halfway stop so that we won’t have to hike 17 miles in one day. That sounds like a very good idea to me!
At another lovely breakfast that included sweet little strawberries (Jim's still having the full Irish, and I'm very happy with yoghurt, Meusli and fruit), we met three young Germans traveling in the same direction. Although we started out earlier, I’m sure they’ll catch up and pass us before too long!
We picked up some fruit and sandwiches for our eventual lunch, and headed down to the water to pick up the trail. Dingle is a fisherman’s town, although these days the main industry is tourism.
We passed many “no vacancy” signs, and saw many rental cars at the waterfront, as well as the first tourist shops we’ve seen, selling all manner of things embossed with shamrocks and leprechauns…
it's the first time we've seen touristy stuff, and it reminds me that we have not heard one person say, "top o' the morning"...We had a lovely morning walk and were overtaken by the friendly Germans by 11:00.
The trail took us down to the beach at Dingle Bay, and we walked at the water’s edge for nearly and hour before heading back inland.
After crossing a few stiles, we began to climb into an area with many stone walls.
The walls are built without mortar, just stone on stone, and stand in all weathers for hundreds of years.Here we saw our first clochan (little stone hut built by the Druids) and were soon to see many more. No one knows what the huts were used for. They are one of the things I have been waiting to see.
I've never seen so much stone upon stone as on this side of Mt. Eagle!
The views were spectacular and the sheep were abundant.
We also saw two ring forts overlooking the beach below at Slea Head.
We descended until we reached the tarmac road at Dunmore Head, the most westerly point of mainland Ireland.
We went past the Dunquin Pier, and continued on the main road to find the B&B that Justin had recommended. It was a long walk on a busy road at the end of a long day, and I was very glad when the B&B came into view.
Cleann Dearg is small and neat, run by Lilia, who decorated it with items brought home from Bali, which interested Jim very much. She served all of us (the Germans were here too) tea and biscuits on her sunny lawn, and we played fetch with her two dogs Jessie and Pippin.
The Germans are Daniel (on the right), an engineer who speaks excellent English and has been to visit the US, his girlfriend Kirsten, a doctor who is studying psychiatry (you can guess what she and Jim talked about), and their friend Timor, an engineer.
Because we weren’t near a town or a restaurant, we also ate dinner here, on a beautiful veranda hung with live grapevines growing inside. I’d love to be here in the autumn when the grapes are ripe!
