We were both feeling like we’d been pushing things a bit, so today was going to be a bit lighter on the activities front. We…failed at that. Oops.
We got a pretty late start—slept in, had a leisurely breakfast at the AirBnB, and then refilled the car with gas (petrol!) before heading to Killarney National Park, where we took the short walk to the Torc Waterfall….and then continued on for a longer loop.
From there, we stopped by Muckross House and did the self-guided tour (interesting house; not very well done curation-wise). We walked around the area a bit—through some of the gardens, down and along the water’s edge, etc.—before hopping back in the car to drive to Ross Castle. Along the way, we made a hasty pull-over to a parking lot for Muckross Abbey, which was a pretty short walk to a pretty impressive structure—multiple levels solidly still intact and available for exploring.
Then, it was on to Ross Castle. We didn’t do a tour of the castle itself, but, instead, did a meandering hike out to the old copper mines on the shore of Lough Leone, as well as to Governor’s Rock. Our attempt to continue that hike out to Library Point was cut short by a flooded trail. But, we still got a number of spectacular views of Killarney National Park from the shores of Lough Leane, which was pretty cool.
Finally, we stopped in Killarney for a meander around downtown, including poking our heads into St. Mary’s Church (spectacular stained glass, a memorial plaque for the pipe organist who played the church’s pipe organ for 57 years, etc.) before heading back to Kenmare and realizing we had logged our third straight day of 20,000 steps.
Most interesting/memorable experience of the day:
Benton: Muckross Abbey
Tim: the sheer size (girth; the heights were always surprisingly short) of the trees in the different forests (that includes the yew tree in the middle of Muckross Abbey)
