County Kerry

Imagine the photos of Ireland featured on postcards, and you are picturing County Kerry. Touring this beautiful south western county of Ireland would have been challenging without a car, but luckily the American program I am studying through--IES--offered a weekend trip for us in mid March. We left Trinity on a nice coach bus bright and early at 7 a.m., and arrived in Killarney National Park by noon.

Our trip began with an hour long boat tour, leaving from Ross Castle and taking us through three different lakes. As we glided across the clear, mirror-like water, we were surrounded by mountains on all sides. There was a layer of mist that gave the trip a mysterious and kind of mystical feeling.

Once we reached Lord Brandon's Cottage, we began a roughly seven mile hike that took us over a mountain, into a valley, and across farmland that had sheep pretty much every two feet. Afterwards our bus took us to our hotel in Killarney, a quaint town that has been one of my favorites so far. Markie was my roommate at an incredibly nice hotel, such a change from hostels! 

The next morning IES took us to Inch Beach, on a tour of the Dingle Whiskey Distillery, and to a pottery making lesson--all before lunch.  I had been skeptical about using over an hour of our tightly scheduled time on a distillery tour, but it actually ended up being one of the highlights of the trip. Not even three years old, the company is actually set to sell its first barrel of whisky in a few months, and is the first distillery to open in Ireland in over 125 years. We got to see the actual distillation process, learn about Irish whiskey history, hear how the company started, and taste samples of their homemade gin as well as un-aged whiskey.

Gorgeous Inch Beach with sand reflecting the sky

We then had an afternoon to explore Dingle, a super cute little town on the coast. After sampling some of the famous Murphy's ice cream (Salted Caramel + Caramelized Brown Bread), Markie, Connor and I checked out a small book store and then just wandered around for a while. We decided to make a pit stop for "lunch" at a small cheese shop, which was 100% the right decision because for around 4 euro Markie and I split a cheese board which was amazing. We spent the end of the afternoon sitting on some rocks in the sun right next the the harbor.

The next morning, Markie, Connor, Julia and I went on a self guided hike that took us back to Ross Castle and a little but deeper into the national park. By noon it was time to board the bus and head back to Dublin. Overall it was a really fun weekend, and County Kerry held many of the most beautiful sites I have seen in Ireland yet.