Ireland – Day 7 – Vagabond – Day 4
Thursday, 16-May-2024
Tags: Travel
After breakfast, we were immediately off to Killarney National Park, the oldest National Park in Ireland, for a bike ride, arriving around 10:15 am.
Jay, our guide, only works with companies like Vagabond. He led us around Muckross Lake, but it was much more than a bike ride, as we stopped frequently, getting history and botany lessons, and making interesting stops. Our first stop was to walk around the outside of the Muckross House, a mid 19th century Victorian mansion, built by the Herbert family, who made their wealth on minerals in the area. Continuing on, we learned about exotic plants like rhododendrons brought for the gardens but becoming invasive, about yews and how they grow and their symbiotic relation with mushrooms, about stinging nettle plants and another plant that can help relieve the sting, etc. We visited a limestone cave with cobalt, copper, and iron in the stone. We stopped at a spot called “The Meeting of the Waters”, and finished up by visiting the Torc waterfall, ending the ride about 1:30 pm.
Getting instructions on braking and being careful on curves.
A blurry clip from a video of us on our bikes.
Muckross House
Limestone cave with many minerals.
View from a bridge.
Meeting of the waters.
Torc waterfall.
Track of bike and walk to waterfall, biking counter-clockwise.
We then drove southwest to “Ladies View”, named for the ladies in waiting on Queen Victoria. Ladies View is a scenic viewpoint on the edge of the Ring of Kerry, one of the most photographed places in Ireland. We had lunch at Ladies View Café.
Ladies View.
Then as another surprise, Jason drove to a trailhead (down a rutted dirt road) for the Kerry Way, where we walked a scenic three-mile segment. The last part of the walk was on a more gravelled surface rather than a trail. We took a great group shot on the height of land. We were picked up at the other end at the intersection with a regular road.
Kerry Way Kenmare.
Along the way.
At the height-of-land.
Looking in the distance to our destination.
We then stopped at Kenmare to look through Quill Woolen Mill and for an ice cream. Finally we drove to the Seaview Hotel in Ballylickey Bantry, County Cork. The hotel is a beautiful manor house with period furniture. We had a gourmet dinner of hake (Larry), duck (Eileen), and finished up with drinks at the bar with the group.
Thursday with the Kerry Walk in red. Jason had driven around to pick us up.
Seaview House Hotel.
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Larry and Eileen Samberg
