On saturday morning we get on early start and left the Ring of Kerry Hotel to head for Valentia Island. We essentially followed what is known as the Skellig Ring in the morning. We made three main stops on the island and another on mainland (which is actually just a slightly larger island too... weird to think about!) during the morning before heading back to the hotel for lunch...
The first one was at the Transatlantic Cable site. It was essentially just a plaque describing the attempts, and final success in 1865, to establish the first communication link between the US and Europe. A pretty amazing feat for the time! In addition to the the plaque, the stop provided a great view of the bay and the ocean before the fog started rolling in!
Second we stopped at the Georghan Mountain look-out and dairy farms. This may seem like a weird combination, but the farmer I mentioned in the post about Friday owns both and lets our student groups into the farm to see the cows and calfs! We had time to walk up all 3 tiers of the mountain and stop for photos along the way. However, the fog rolled in not long after we started up and we could barley see our own hands after the 1st tier... we decided that it might be a good idea just to head back down at that point!
Our third stop of the morning, The Valentia Slate Quarry, was made successful by the lifting of the fog... again. We were told that 'classic' Ring of Kerry weather is rainy and foggy, we luckily managed to stay dry the whole weekend and only lose one or two views to the fog. The Quarry itself wasn't all that interesting, other than a strange, very well kept, Mary statue in an alcove in the cave wall (kinda hard to see in the picture). The real event of the stop, however, was the view of the other side of the island, bay, and mainland.
Back on the main island, our final stop of the morning was in a town called Bellinskelligs, which is where Marian our guide grew up! The bus let us out on a beach with a castle ruin that we could climb in... which was great craic. Luckily the tide was out or it would have been impossible to get out to the structure, even then we had to take off our shoes to walk through the water. I felt like a little kid wiggling my toes in the sand and climbing the stone walls of the castle like a giant jungle gym!!
It's hard to tell, but Sydney, Paul, and I are actually sitting on
the upper wall of the structure after climbing up!
With sandy feet we headed back to the hotel for lunch before enjoying a few more sights in the afternoon...
With full bellies we jumped back on the bus to head to one of the three ring forts still standing on the Ring of Kerry. This one was called Cahergall, the structure was huge and still in perfect condition!
After the fort we had the choice to either take the bus back to town of walk back and see a few more sights on our own. I logically decided to walk back... and I'm glad I did! My friends and I opted out of seeing a second fort, Leacanbuaile, and got a head start on our walk to Ballycarbery Castle. It was amazing! (PS... for anyone who's into Amy Adams movies, this castle was recently filmed for the movie Leap Year) We were able to duck under the fence and go right into the castle... it's really amazing to see these structures from the 16th century still standing!
Just as we were leaving the castle my camera battery died, but luckily me I got the pictures I wanted for the day and luckily for you that means the end of this crazy long post! I clearly had an amazing day on Saturday... But I managed to add even more excitement into the weekend on Sunday, so keep and eye out for that post later this week!
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