The Dingle Peninsula is the home of numerous early Christian sites of significance. Throughout the centuries, visitors have come here to find a place close to God, and pilgrimages continue to the present day. The Riasc Monastic settlement is one of Ireland’s best known early Christian settlements.
The Riasc stone pillar is decorated with 7th C art.
The Gallarus Oratory is an early Christian stone chapel. Called dry stone construction, the rock contains no mortar. The stones are corbeled similarly to the beehive clochans we saw yesterday. Visitors are amazed that this rectangular building is still waterproof after standing for over 1300 years!
At the Kilmalkedar (Cill Maoilcheadair) medieval ecclesiastical site (joint Christian and pagan) we found an Ogham stone carved with the earliest form of writing in Ireland.
We renewed our wedding vows in ancient Celtic fashion by touching ring fingers through the hole in the stone; apparently that is all you needed to do to be married in the eyes of God! Sorry you all weren’t invited to the nuptials!!
Back in the town of Dingle, we visited Murphy’s Ice Cream to try some of their interesting flavours – caramelized brown bread, marmalade and sea salt. Milk in Kerry is naturally salty due to the cows’ grazing area beside the ocean.
And in the interest of tasting as many whiskeys as possible, a whiskey tour at the Dingle Distillery was our next stop. Dave really wanted to like it as it’s a small batch distillery and it has an interesting name.
We then headed to the north side of the peninsula via Conor Pass.
The town of Tralee marks the ‘end’ of the Dingle Peninsula. We are finished with the self-cater accommodation for the trip and have checked into a cute hotel just to the north of town for the night before moving on again in the morning.
Tonight we attended an Irish music and dance show called Celtic Steps.
With drums, fiddles and a button accordion, the musicians put on a great show while the dancers regaled us with traditional footwork.
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