Final Day in Killarney

A hillside in the Caha Mountains.

On our third and final day in Killarney, we started out the morning driving through the Caha Mountains. We had to go through a couple of tunnels which just barely fit the bus. Here's a picture of the sign we encountered right before one of the tunnels, and the tunnel itself.

Kind of frightening road sign.

Tunnel in the "mountains." Yeah, I'm from Colorado, and they seemed more like hills to me.

There are Gaeltacht areas in Ireland where the people only speak Irish, and the street signs are only in Irish because the government gave up trying to put English on the signs after the locals painted over it five times. I'm pretty glad that this particular sign had the English translation also!

We rode a ferry out to Garnish Island and got to see seals in the water on the ride out. The boat driver also pointed out the roof of Maureen O'Hara's house.

This seal looked like he was smiling in the early morning sunshine.

Several seals sunning themselves.

Even more seals hanging out on the rocks.

I loved the little guy's eyes.

The roof of Maureen O'Hara's home.

Once we docked on the island we walked around the beautiful gardens on Garnish Island. I think that may have been the day I took the largest number of photos. I do know it was the day when I completely filled up the 32GB memory card in my camera's first slot and started in on the second memory card. Don't worry, I'm not going to post all of them!

Sign in Irish and English.

Flowers on a building in the gardens.

I believe these flowers are fuchsia.

Lilly pads in the pond in the gardens.

Irish irises.

Daisies, buttercups, and clover.

Rhododendron behind the daisies, buttercups, and clover. The ubiquitous flowers of Ireland.

We had lunch in Glengarriff that day, then headed back to Killarney through the Ring of Kerry.

One of the stops in the Ring of Kerry. That's our bus driver, John, in the bottom left corner of the photo.

As we were headed back, Matthew said we'd be passing Torc Waterfall in Killarney National Park, and he'd be happy to drop anyone off who wanted to walk the three kilometers back to the hotel. When he asked for takers, I didn't care if no one else was doing it, I raised my hand. But I didn't end up doing it alone, my husband and six other folks decided to get off and walk back also. My son was not happy that I told him we were going to walk back, then someone else offered to take my children back to the hotel, so it was even a kid-free walk. This was our third and final visit to the beautiful park.

Sunlight filtering through the trees in the park.

Trees in front of the lake.

Limestone on the side of the lake.

More trees in the park. I LOVED Killarney National Park!

The reason I was so determined to go back to the park was because I desperately wanted to see Muckross Abbey. It's another beautiful old stone building which is being reclaimed by nature, plus it has a cemetery loaded with beautiful Celtic crosses. As an interesting side note, Matthew told us why so many of the old buildings in Ireland have no roofs. Apparently if a building has a roof it's considered fit to live in and will be subject to property tax. However, without a roof the building isn't considered a domestic building and therefore isn't subject to the tax.

Muckross Abbey from a distance.

Muckross Abbey from another angel.

Celtic cross.

Celtic cross.

Celtic cross.

Yet another Celtic cross.

Tree growing in the interior courtyard of the Abbey.

Looking out from the "inside" of Muckross Abbey.

We were told one can always tell if a building was used as a castle or a church by the size of the windows. Small windows were easily defensible (and usually wider inside) and were used in castles. Large windows served to let light into places of worship.

Leaving the park for the last time.

We walked back to the hotel and ran into a roadside vendor selling fresh strawberries, which was a nice treat since we were eating out at every meal. I think we ended up walking about ten miles in total that day, which was why I didn't put too much weight on despite eating more than I should have.

We headed out into the town of the Killarney for the final time that evening. After the restaurant my husband found on Yelp was a bust since they were "full", we had dinner in a real pub while a Gaelic Football match was on. I think it was a much more authentic experience as it was definitely off the beaten tourist path. We saw lots of really drunk people and at one point a table was knocked over and pictures were knocked off the wall. We walked out that evening through a puddle of beer, and good cheer.

Picture of an Irish footballer legend in the pub.