Ireland Day 4: Gap of Dunloe, Killarney National Park

We booked a "tour" from our hotel of the Gap of Dunloe.  This is a harder to access area, and the guidebooks said to not drive it, because the roads are crazy.  We were passed by many who drove it, and though very narrow and windy, it is driveable.  We were also warned it was going to be rainy.  We hesitated but decided to book anyway.  Many people do the Gap in a pony trap, but we decided to walk it.  Best decision ever.  Can I talk about how lucky we were with weather the entire trip?  We had sun except this day.  And it kept the tourists to a minimum and made for the most incredible surreal scenery.  Anyway, a shuttle picked us up at our hotel in the morning.  We were dressed in our rain gear, which held up well (Rob's shoes and my rain jacket weren't ideal, but other than that we were in good shape), and then it dropped us off at another van where a man drove us and an older couple from Cape Cod (Dee and Dom, who were super nice and super talkative and had strong Mass/NY accents).  We were driven to Kate Kearney's cottage, where most people hire a pony trap.  We set out on our six mile trek through the Gap from there.  It was so incredibly beautiful.  Words can't describe it.  And the rain was pouring so there were hundreds of waterfalls.  The water level was rising in the lakes like crazy.  Perfection. 

We walked down through the Black Valley, our destination Lord Brandon's cottage, in Killarney National Park.  Ireland used to be forested and the area around Lord Brandon's and along the lakes has some of the only old growth forests left.  Anyway we passed many blackberry brambles and partook.  Minions at the school was jarring.  We got to Lord Brandon's which is really just a cafeteria.  Our boat man and the people booked on our boat back had been waiting for us.  We were the only walkers.  The rest had taken the pony traps.  We ate quickly and then boarded our boat.

The boats used to be rowed.  Our boatman was awesome.  His name was Don, he had many interesting stories and myths to tell and had a strong accent, and kept saying, "Lads, look over there..."  The ride back to Killarney took us through Three lakes and their connecting rivers and was unreal.  I kept expecting to see Frodo or Bilbo. Despite the cold and the wet, it was magical.  And took about an hour.  We were dropped off at Ross Castle in Killarney national park. Our driver took us back to our hotel.  We changed into dry clothes and then, fingers crossed, we drove to Muckross House.  I really wanted to see it, but we were told the last tour was at 3.  We hoped that info was wrong.  We arrived at 4:30 and by 1 minute made it on the last tour.  Lucky us. 

A map that shows our route.

Muckross house is in the most amazing setting.  We were lucky to be on the last tour, becuase instead of having 30 people on the tour we had about 10.  It was perfect. And we were dry, so that was nice too. The most interesting part of the history of the house was Queen Victoria came to stay for 3 days.  The family prepared for the visit for 6 years. They installed a fire escape because the Queen was terrified of fires.  They nearly went bankrupt in the process.  But they spent all the money because the Queen always reimbursed the money and promised a title.  But Albert died shortly after the visit and she forgot to repay and bestow the title, so the family lost everything!  Wow.  

 

We stopped at another Killarney National Park site, Muckross Abbey.  So fun to explore this one, with all it's cloisters and stairways.  We were getting hungry and sadly skipped Torc waterfall, in favor of finding food.  Next time

We searched for a pub with music and apple crisp.  We found one.  The food was delicious. I had Guiness stew and soda bread.  I am a huge fan of Irish soda bread.  So goo. And the pub had a pull chain toilet, which for some reason makes me very nostalgic for my childhood days in England.  The music at this pub wasn't great. Kind of over the top old people music.  So after we ate, we went to find a trad session in a different pub.  Most trad sessions started late.  We did find one place but there was no place to sit, so we gave up and went and did a little shopping then headed back to the hotel.  Such a great day.