Friday, September 15, 2006
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 23rd—RING OF KERRY
We got up early today and drove back down to Killarney to start the drove around the Ring of Kerry just south of there. As is usual we had a rainy drab morning to start what turned out to be a special day of sight seeing. On our drive to Killarney, Mary had to stop in a small town named Adare to get some pictures of some of the houses with thatched roofs and a pretty old church. Mary is fascinated by the thatched roofs on some of the buildings here.
I’m going to borrow from a brochure a description of what the Ring of Kerry is. The Ring O Kerry affords a panoramic drive through some of County Kerry’s most outstanding scenery around the Iveragh Peninsula. The route of the Ring travels through Killorglin beside the River Laune, Caragh Lake and on to Glenbeigh where we got our first glimpse of the Atlantic Ocean at Rossbeigh. It goes South along the shores of Dingle Bay to Kells. Nearby the Skelling Experience Center is located and Ballinskelling is not too far away.
We continued on to Waterville and along the coast via the Coomakista Pass and Derrynane to Sneem. From there we drove along the shores of Kenmare Bay into Kenmare town. From there we went back to Killarney via Molls Gap and Ladies View where we got great views of the famous Lakes of Killarney.
Along this route we stopped for some of the touristy stuff, and we just stopped for a lot of the pretty stuff.
Our first stop on the Ring was at Glenbeigh. Just south of the town is the Kerry Bog Village Museum. Their claim is that they had moved actual structures to the sit and recreated a typical village. They had several levels of socio-economic dwellings. At the lower end of the scale there is the stable dwelling of the small poor farmers. Half of the house was set aside for humans and the other half was reserved for animals. It kept the amimals in out of the cold and their body heat helped to warmth area. The rear door of the house was raised so the dropping of the animals could just be swept out side.
The next level was for laborers. It is a very basic structure with dirt floors and an open fire place with a wooden chimney. These cottages were built by the community and the laborers were like handyman type folks. They lived in the cottages and helped the craftsmen upon request. He received no pay for his labor, instead he got his keep.
The turf cutters house was a level above the laborer dwellings. These houses would most likely have stone floors and at least two rooms. They had storage for the tools of the home owner’s trade and were usually well built dry and very warm. The one we saw as an example actually had a peat fire in the fireplace.
The highest level in the class structure of the villages was the Thatcher’s dwelling. He was usually the wealthiest man in the village, because he had a trade and was a craftsman. At that time all the houses were thatched. Some people tried to do their own, but if you could afford it you hired a Thatcher. The house we saw had more room and better furnishings in the living area. More and better dishes and utensils in the kitchen and there was a sleeping loft above the bedroom with two more beds there.
Depending on the accuracy to the dwellings shown there was a distinct difference in the standard of living. In the village there was also a blacksmith shop, barn with animals and a chicken house with chickens. The cows were the famous Black Kerry Cows. The next day Mary went to a pasture where there were some of the cows to take a picture. She met a lady and while visiting with her she told the lady what she was doing. The lady asked, “Do you mean the Blue Kerry Coos”. Mary didn’t realize what she had said until she was telling me about it later.
In the village they had a lot of really neat old tools. There were piles of peat at each house. We were told that the peat in their bog was estimated to be 35,000 years old. Peat is the left overs of plant material which caught up in low boggy areas and over the centuries decayed and grew most on top. It continued the process until there is a good level of peat which is cut out of the ground in squares like sod, only smaller. It is used as fuel to heat and cook. It does burn warm; however, it does not smell very good if the chimney is drawing well. I guess it beats cow chips and buffalo chips like they burned on the American plains. There was a machine used to cut the peat into the size block required for the type of fire you needed. It was a wheel with two blades on it. You turn the wheel and some teeth pull the peat through and the blades slice of the amount of the settings. The y had carts and wheelbarrows with wooden block wheels and a lot of old farm machines like plows, planters and mowers.
This was an interesting stop for us. It did give an idea of the style of living in the early 1600’s. I would think that it had not progressed a great deal until the late 1800’s in the US. One event which was a big deal in the region was the Puck Fair. The Puck, (male goat), is by their legend a symbol of fertility and the fair grew up in the 1500’s and continues today There are written records as early as 1603 of the Kings permission of the city to charge a fee for each goat brought to the fair.
As we continued on our trip we passed through the McGillycuddy Reeks which are a range of low but beautifully rugged mountains. At Rossbeigh we saw the Atlantic Ocean for the first time off of Irish shores. We followed the coast up and over the Coomkista Pass which rises 700 feet above the shore line and give some really great views of the Irish coast on the Atlantic. We stopped at a viewing point and took some great pictures. On our way down the other side we stopped at a small deli on a cliff overlooking the ocean and bought us a picnic lunch. They had tables outside and we ate there even though it was a pretty good struggle.
After lunch we made another viewing stop and while we were there we met a young couple and visited with them for awhile. The man was born in Americus, GA, and his wife was from some small town in MS. They were changing jobs and moving to Virginia so they took an Irish vacation on the way. They were having as much fun as we were. They told us about an old fort which they had visited at Castlecove. We had read about it and we wanted to stop there anyway so we did. The fort dated back about 2500 years. The community of peasants which worked the land depended on the protection of the nobleman who controlled them. In time of danger they entered the fort. The area was about 30 yards in diameter and was almost a circle. The walls were 18 feet high on the north side where they were at their full height, and they were 13 feet thick at the base and about 7 feet thick at the top. They were made from native stone and were stacked without any mortar. The stacked were shaped into stairs which reached up to flat areas where the defenders could stand. There were small chambers built into the wall for storage. I read that inside the walls they built what was called bee hive houses to use during a siege. There was no evidence of these.
We spent so much time on the Ring of Kerry that we had to cancel our plans to go to Galway. We found a hostel in Muckross, which is just south of Killarny. It was an old farm and the guy who owned it had run a hostel there since 1979. His wife had died and his daughter lived there and helped him run the business. It was on top of a mountain and just had a one lane road for about two miles. We had never stayed in a dorm at a hostel. Here we stayed in a large room with four sets of bunk beds. Our roommates were two French girls and a Family with two kids about 8-12 years old. There was a common kitchen and you could bring in food and cook if you wished. We got in late, went to town to a hotel and used their wireless internet and ate dinner in their restraint and then went back out there to sleep. We left early the next morning. It was a different experience, but it was OK. The next morning was Thursday and we had reservations in Dublin that night so we could leave Ireland on Friday we drove directly back to Dublin.
We got up early today and drove back down to Killarney to start the drove around the Ring of Kerry just south of there. As is usual we had a rainy drab morning to start what turned out to be a special day of sight seeing. On our drive to Killarney, Mary had to stop in a small town named Adare to get some pictures of some of the houses with thatched roofs and a pretty old church. Mary is fascinated by the thatched roofs on some of the buildings here.
I’m going to borrow from a brochure a description of what the Ring of Kerry is. The Ring O Kerry affords a panoramic drive through some of County Kerry’s most outstanding scenery around the Iveragh Peninsula. The route of the Ring travels through Killorglin beside the River Laune, Caragh Lake and on to Glenbeigh where we got our first glimpse of the Atlantic Ocean at Rossbeigh. It goes South along the shores of Dingle Bay to Kells. Nearby the Skelling Experience Center is located and Ballinskelling is not too far away.
We continued on to Waterville and along the coast via the Coomakista Pass and Derrynane to Sneem. From there we drove along the shores of Kenmare Bay into Kenmare town. From there we went back to Killarney via Molls Gap and Ladies View where we got great views of the famous Lakes of Killarney.
Along this route we stopped for some of the touristy stuff, and we just stopped for a lot of the pretty stuff.
Our first stop on the Ring was at Glenbeigh. Just south of the town is the Kerry Bog Village Museum. Their claim is that they had moved actual structures to the sit and recreated a typical village. They had several levels of socio-economic dwellings. At the lower end of the scale there is the stable dwelling of the small poor farmers. Half of the house was set aside for humans and the other half was reserved for animals. It kept the amimals in out of the cold and their body heat helped to warmth area. The rear door of the house was raised so the dropping of the animals could just be swept out side.
The next level was for laborers. It is a very basic structure with dirt floors and an open fire place with a wooden chimney. These cottages were built by the community and the laborers were like handyman type folks. They lived in the cottages and helped the craftsmen upon request. He received no pay for his labor, instead he got his keep.
The turf cutters house was a level above the laborer dwellings. These houses would most likely have stone floors and at least two rooms. They had storage for the tools of the home owner’s trade and were usually well built dry and very warm. The one we saw as an example actually had a peat fire in the fireplace.
The highest level in the class structure of the villages was the Thatcher’s dwelling. He was usually the wealthiest man in the village, because he had a trade and was a craftsman. At that time all the houses were thatched. Some people tried to do their own, but if you could afford it you hired a Thatcher. The house we saw had more room and better furnishings in the living area. More and better dishes and utensils in the kitchen and there was a sleeping loft above the bedroom with two more beds there.
Depending on the accuracy to the dwellings shown there was a distinct difference in the standard of living. In the village there was also a blacksmith shop, barn with animals and a chicken house with chickens. The cows were the famous Black Kerry Cows. The next day Mary went to a pasture where there were some of the cows to take a picture. She met a lady and while visiting with her she told the lady what she was doing. The lady asked, “Do you mean the Blue Kerry Coos”. Mary didn’t realize what she had said until she was telling me about it later.
In the village they had a lot of really neat old tools. There were piles of peat at each house. We were told that the peat in their bog was estimated to be 35,000 years old. Peat is the left overs of plant material which caught up in low boggy areas and over the centuries decayed and grew most on top. It continued the process until there is a good level of peat which is cut out of the ground in squares like sod, only smaller. It is used as fuel to heat and cook. It does burn warm; however, it does not smell very good if the chimney is drawing well. I guess it beats cow chips and buffalo chips like they burned on the American plains. There was a machine used to cut the peat into the size block required for the type of fire you needed. It was a wheel with two blades on it. You turn the wheel and some teeth pull the peat through and the blades slice of the amount of the settings. The y had carts and wheelbarrows with wooden block wheels and a lot of old farm machines like plows, planters and mowers.
This was an interesting stop for us. It did give an idea of the style of living in the early 1600’s. I would think that it had not progressed a great deal until the late 1800’s in the US. One event which was a big deal in the region was the Puck Fair. The Puck, (male goat), is by their legend a symbol of fertility and the fair grew up in the 1500’s and continues today There are written records as early as 1603 of the Kings permission of the city to charge a fee for each goat brought to the fair.
As we continued on our trip we passed through the McGillycuddy Reeks which are a range of low but beautifully rugged mountains. At Rossbeigh we saw the Atlantic Ocean for the first time off of Irish shores. We followed the coast up and over the Coomkista Pass which rises 700 feet above the shore line and give some really great views of the Irish coast on the Atlantic. We stopped at a viewing point and took some great pictures. On our way down the other side we stopped at a small deli on a cliff overlooking the ocean and bought us a picnic lunch. They had tables outside and we ate there even though it was a pretty good struggle.
After lunch we made another viewing stop and while we were there we met a young couple and visited with them for awhile. The man was born in Americus, GA, and his wife was from some small town in MS. They were changing jobs and moving to Virginia so they took an Irish vacation on the way. They were having as much fun as we were. They told us about an old fort which they had visited at Castlecove. We had read about it and we wanted to stop there anyway so we did. The fort dated back about 2500 years. The community of peasants which worked the land depended on the protection of the nobleman who controlled them. In time of danger they entered the fort. The area was about 30 yards in diameter and was almost a circle. The walls were 18 feet high on the north side where they were at their full height, and they were 13 feet thick at the base and about 7 feet thick at the top. They were made from native stone and were stacked without any mortar. The stacked were shaped into stairs which reached up to flat areas where the defenders could stand. There were small chambers built into the wall for storage. I read that inside the walls they built what was called bee hive houses to use during a siege. There was no evidence of these.
We spent so much time on the Ring of Kerry that we had to cancel our plans to go to Galway. We found a hostel in Muckross, which is just south of Killarny. It was an old farm and the guy who owned it had run a hostel there since 1979. His wife had died and his daughter lived there and helped him run the business. It was on top of a mountain and just had a one lane road for about two miles. We had never stayed in a dorm at a hostel. Here we stayed in a large room with four sets of bunk beds. Our roommates were two French girls and a Family with two kids about 8-12 years old. There was a common kitchen and you could bring in food and cook if you wished. We got in late, went to town to a hotel and used their wireless internet and ate dinner in their restraint and then went back out there to sleep. We left early the next morning. It was a different experience, but it was OK. The next morning was Thursday and we had reservations in Dublin that night so we could leave Ireland on Friday we drove directly back to Dublin.
