Dingle Peninsula

We thought Connemara had breathtaking scenery......and then we travelled the Dingle Peninsula! These are a couple of photos we took on the way from Limerick to Dingle.

We stayed in a little stone cottage at a place called Ballybeag which is just outside the town of Dingle. It also had a couple of cats in residence!

The next few photos show more of the beautiful scenery around Dingle. These ones were taken on the coastal Slea Head Drive we did of the western part of the Peninsula.

Along the way we also visited Dunbeg Fort which is a stone promontory fort built about 500BC.

And Kilmalkedar Church which was built in the 12th century. There are some very interesting carvings in this church, some of them pagan rather than Christian.

We also did another drive, this one of Conor Pass which took us to the northern part of the Peninsula.

We have no idea what the stone enclosure in this paddock is but it was visible from the viewing area at the top of Conor Pass.

One of the most fun things we did was a two hour fishing trip.  Between us we caught more than 40 fish - mostly mackerel and some pollock! Don't underestimate the strength required to reel in a 2 kilo fish!

Afterwards we took our catch to a local pub where they cooked it up for dinner. Needless to say none of us has eaten any fish since that feast! Our fishing trip ended on a high note with an acrobatic display by Fungi, Dingle's resident dolphin!

Our real taste of Irish culture came on our last night in Dingle when we went to a concert of traditional folk music at St James' Church.  This tiny church has become a Mecca for emerging musicians and every year the church is the venue for a concert series called Other Voices which is broadcast on the BBC.  In 2006, Amy Winehouse performed on the stage you can see in this photo.  The night we went, the three local performers were Riona O'Madigain, John Brown and Eoin Duignan. It was great!