.: that’s a corker or intersecting rings :.

This autumn, we returned to one of our favourite and inexhaustible travel destinations—Ireland. This time, however, we explored the southwestern extreme of County Cork and the Ring of Beara, on the peninsula just below the Ring of Kerry that we saw in 2008 (before the establishment of Our Little Travel Blog). We landed at Cork International Airport, and after some delays and finding the route at night a little intimidating—plus learning that the key and major landmark to find the cottage by the sea we rented for the week (turn left at the sign “Honey for Sale”) was no longer there (because the man had sold all his honey), we did make it into Adrigole late in the evening. The house itself was a vision of taste and charmingly rustic, fully outfitted and a great base for further exploration.

We got our bearings better in the daylight the next morning and headed to the next larger town to stock up on some provisions (it being a Sunday, and Adrigole, once a boom town had dwindled to one small but storied shop, two pubs and a church) and drove along the coast to Castletownbere (which has the second largest natural harbour in the world after Sidney/Australia!). After walking down main street and the docks, we visited two nearby archeological sites that the Beara Peninsula is rich in: a stone circle and an ancient round fort—then marched about a bit on the perimeter of Puxley and O’Sullivan Bere castles—vanity properties that were testament to those boom days before the Famine and copper mining went bust, as we were to learn more about later.

The next day, we headed in the opposite direction towards Glengariff and the Garinish Island (DE/EN). A little boat took us out into the bay, where we were treated with some native seals basking on rocky outcroppings and it was quite a show. Once the boat landed, we spent a nice couple of hours exploring the Italian Gardens and tropical wonders tended there. After lunch, we headed north towards Kenmare and the Caha Mountain Pass towards County Kerry and Killarney National Park to revisit a few of the scenic outlooks along the Ring of Kerry.

We stopped at the “Druid’s View” near Moll’s Gap and then the “Ladies’ View,” (DE/EN) which were both stunning and always deserve a second look and linger, and we searched for the spot on the shores of Lough Leane where we had stopped before.

Tuesday we went further south, through Bantry, touring the grounds of the imposing manor house and had coffee in their Tea Room, and past the Sheep’s Head Peninsula and onto the most south-westerly point in Ireland: the Mizen Head with spectacular views that peered out to the end of the world, it seemed. The newly completed visitors’ centre opened up onto a steep, breath-taking but accessible, cliff-face where one could cross a bridge that spanned the roaring seas about fifty metres below and see the preserved Marconi signal station, lighthouse keeper’s quarters (the last full-time keeper became redundant in 1993 but turned the hobby he developed while on isolated Mizen Head into a successful framing business), and more roiling waters.

The weather was a bit dicey at times and that did not discourage us for exploring. A lot of people offered their consolations, which made us wonder if this were especially bad. All in all, it was what we expected and many times, we had beautiful, golden afternoons.

The next day, we returned to the Ring of Kerry (DE/EN), first searching out the ancient stone fort at Staigue (DE/EN). This, as was most of our stops along the way, put us in the company of sheep, graffiti tagged so shepherds could tell the flocks apart.

We continued along beautiful Skellig Bay, stopping off at the town of Waterville for lunch—a favoured vacation spot of Charlie Chaplin, too, we learned. We completed the circuit and came back over the Caha Mountains to Kenmare where the rings intersected. That evening, we studied up on Beara and her history and enjoyed a reluctant but pleasant fire in the hearth.

Thursday, we were determined to complete the complete the circuit for the Ring of Beara and went beyond Castletownbere west towards Garnish village and Dursey Island (DE/EN). This other end of the earth hosts the only gondola in Ireland that connects Dursey with the mainland. The operator was on his afternoon break and livestock and Islanders get priority for the limited seating in the gondola so we hiked up and down the cliffs instead. Afterwards, we returned to the Beara Way and stopped again for coffee at the Copper Mine Museum in Allihies—where we had stopped before on a rainer day but were now better equipped with the history of the place and set out to find the abandoned mine works in the hills.

Next, we went along the northern coast, through Urhan, Gort and Eyeries, and eventually found the stone circle of Ardgroom. It is among the best preserved Paleolithic sites in Ireland, but lovated across a very muddy pasture, whose steppingstones sunk like quicksand and a pretty messy affair. We took a short-cut back to the house at Adrigole over the bracing Healy Pass between Sugar Loaf Mountain and the Hungry Hill (DE/EN) that Daphne du Maurier (DE) immortalized in her novel. The experience was terrific but the heavy fog at the summit made us resolve to come back the next day.

Our final day was spent exploring more of Adrigole, ruins of churches hidden high up in the mountains from the times when Catholic observance was persecuted by the ruling English, grand towering waterfalls, the fishing harbours of Adrigole that looked out over the bay and Bere Island, and a few more archeological gems. We approached later the Healy Pass from the Adrigole side and had some spectacular luck with the clearer weather and descended into Kenmare for some afternoon coffee and look at the town. We were sad to tell Ireland that we will see her later, again, but it was a memorable trip and surely an adventure to retrace and further very soon.