After breakfast we said a fond farewell to our tiny glamping pod and headed to the end of the Beara Peninsula.
Dereenataggart stone circle stands in a field very close to the road just to the north of Castletownbere. Called a recumbent stone circle, one monolithic stone lies on its side while the other stones create a circle.
Recumbent circles are found only in the north-east of Scotland and here in the Irish counties of Cork and Kerry. Also called axial stone circles, they are aligned with the arc of the southern moon and believed to be associated with rituals in which moonlight plays a central role. Dereenataggart used to contain 15 stones, only 9 are standing today.
At Derreenavurrig we wanted to take the the cable car across the channel to Dursey Island (Oilean Baoi) but the line was over an hour long. The cable car carries only 6 people at a time and takes about 15 minutes to make the crossing.
This is the only cable car in Ireland, built in 1969. The distance to the island is very short, but the incredibly strong tides in the Dursey Sound make boat travel very hazardous.
The tiny island is 6 ½ by 1 ½ km and boasts only a very few permanent residents.
We enjoyed watching the channel churn for a little while, and continued on our way.
From Dursey, we found lunch at O’Neill’s Bar and Restaurant in Allihies. A small town pub with very tasty grub.
Then from Adrigole we drove up and over the Healy Pass. The road was very twisty-turny and the scenery was amazing.
Healy Pass
It was a steep 2km hike through the woods to the Cashelkeelty Stone Circles.
They first site at Cashelkeelty is made up of 5 stones in the circle plus a row of stones most likely dating to about 1000BC. Similarly to other circles we have seen, there were cremated remains found in the center of the circle.
A little further up the hill was another set of stones; only 3 remaining from a much larger circle.
We took another quick detour off the main road to find the Uragh Stone Circle (Ciorcal Cloch Uragh) on the shores of the Lough Inchiquin. The axial 5-stone circle was likely erected during the Bronze Age circa 2500 BC.
We continued to drive north onto the Iveragh Peninsula, around which is the famous Ring of Kerry. We are going to drive the Ring the day after tomorrow, so today we took the inland route through the Ballaghbeama Gap. This area is called Glencar, the highlands of Kerry. The road is skinny and there aren’t many places to pull over but we took advantage of the few pullouts to shoot the amazing scenery.
We ended the day at another tiny glamping pod just outside of the town of Cahersiveen.
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