Experiencing the Irish Rain

A refrain from a song that the Irish Descendants sing..."A walk in the Irish rain..." has been an "earworm" for me these past few days.  We have experienced the extremes of Irish rain in this south-west corner--from a soft mist to a drizzle to a pleasant gentle rain to a torrential downpour of the "where's my soap?"  variety.  We experienced the latter here in Killarney last night as we were trying to get from the car to the hostel.

We took refuge in a doorway, just opposite the pub where we'd had a drink a few moments earlier.  Lloyd hollered across  to the bar man, suggesting that he deliver a pint while we waited...and of course the response was that we were on the wrong side of the road.

We had originally planned to spend 5 nights at Hungry Hill Lodge on the Beara Peninsula, but ended up staying only three due to the weather.  It just wasn't good walking when the hilltops were mist-enshrouded and wet.  However, everyday there was some sunshine, and we were able to stretch our legs along the coastlines at least.  And this mist does make for some spectacular scenery.

At the top of the Healy Pass looking north into Co. Kerry

The Healy Pass was built as a "famine road", i.e. a way for people to earn some money, well over a hundred years ago.  It replaced a foot-path/cart track that had been in use for centuries.

At the top of the Healy pass looking south into Co. Cork with the snake-like road going down, down, down...

We managed a good walk through a wood near a ruined castle on the south coast of Beara...

The roads are lined with fuschia hedges....

At the far end of Beara is Dursey Island, and a popular way to get there is by cable car...

We arrived too late in the day to go over.  If the weather had been better earlier, we could have gone across in the morning for a good walk around the island.

You can see that we have had pockets of good walking weather!  This was along a lovely stone beach on the Ring of Kerry just west of Killarney.  Lloyd had trouble picking up only one rock, not several.

One of Lloyd's artistic photos...

There are some spectacular vistas of patchwork fields, stone walls, and neat houses.

As I said earlier, we're now in Killarney and will be staying here another night at Neptune's Hostel, a particularly apt name given how we had to splash our way in...