The Ring of Kerry I

If you’ve been to Ireland odds are that you’ve circled The Ring of Kerry. We did not on our previous visit, choosing to visit the Barra Peninsula instead.

On the advice of our Kenmare B&B host, we followed a route that might be called The Ringlet of Kerry. The Ring circles from Kenmare through Cahersiveen to Killarney and back. Our route turned left just past Waterville and followed The Skellig Ring through Ballinskelligs and The Glen to Portmagee and onto Valentia Island. From there, we rejoined The Ring of Kerry, but retracing our path back to Kenmare.

There are a few things to be said in favor of this route.

• There are a lot beautiful and historical places not otherwise seen.
• The road is so narrow, with many single lane sections, that tour buses are prohibited.
• There is a chocolate factory along the way that offers free samples.

I’m going to break the trip into several blog posts since there are quite a few photos and the places along the way are unrelated.

Let’s begin with the flyspeck village of Timoleague, where we found an old friary that now serves only as a graveyard for dead friars.

The slightly larger village of Sneem boasts an impressively roaring river, nicely painted buildings, and a memorial to the time Charles de Gaulle came for a holiday. Also an interesting doorstep (at least to me) showing the remains of many coats of paint.

Our next stop, and the last one for this blog post, involved a four mile drive up a one-lane road. The journey was worth it because we found the best-preserved example of an ancient ring fort.

The dry stone walls are about twelve feet thick. “Dry stone” means the rocks are just stacked together, no mortar involved.

The fort consists of three concentric rings, each about four feet thick. Notice now stairways are constructed from breaks in the two inner rings.

Staigue Fort is one of the largest and finest stone forts in Ireland and was probably built in the early centuries AD before Christianity came to Ireland. It must have been the home of a very wealthy landowner or chieftain who had a great need for security.

A wall up to six metres high and four metres thick-built entirely without mortar-encloses an area thırty metres in diameter. Several near vertical masonry joints are visible in the wall, and these may indicate that the fort was built in stages rather than in one continuous operation. The fort was entered through a narrow, lintel-covered passage in the wall.

The fort was the home of the chieftain’s family, guards and servants, and would have been full of houses, out-buildings, and possibly tents or other temporary structures. No buildings survive today, though two small chambers are contained within the wall. The top of the wall was reached by a series of steps which crisscross against the inside of the wall. An earthen bank and ditch around the fort gave further protection.

A special treat for all you flower lovers. That means you Darrell.