The next day we drove the southern and western parts of the Ring of Kerry. As you reach the western portion you are greeted with some of the best views in Ireland.
Around every bend in the road is yet another beautiful view, fortunately with spots to pull the car over.
Just a short detour off the main road is Loher Stone Fort. This is more one-way driving on a two-way road, but we didn’t see anybody else the entire time we were there.
This recently reconstructed fort was originally built around the 9th century. It was built to protect a farmstead, with two houses inside the structure, a large round one, and a smaller rectangular one.
The walls must be 15 feet thick!
A little further along you come to Waterville, a little town right on the beach. The town is known as the site where the first successful transatlantic cable was laid in 1865, connecting Europe and North America. It is also known for Charlie Chaplin, who first visited in 1959 and continued to holiday here every year for over 10 years.
If you visit here and want a photo with Charlie, make sure you time it between bus visits, where 50 people all jump off and crowd around the statue. I can’t imagine trying to cram in the entire Ring of Kerry, in one day, on a bus, but there are a lot of people who do just that.
Below are the ruins of Ballinskellings Castle, constructed in the 16th century to protect the bay from pirates and charge a tariff on incoming trade vessels (the REAL pirates!).
Nearby is Ballinskellings Abbey, built in the 12th century for the monks who were previously living on Skellig Michael island. They moved here after being attacked numerous times by Vikings.
Unfortunately we couldn’t visit Skellig Michael during this trip, as we just missed the weather window. If you find yourself in this area during the summer, I highly suggest you visit, as it’s gorgeous. It’s also famous as a Star Wars filming spot.
One of the best spots we visited on the Ring were the Kerry Cliffs. This is on private property, so you have to pay a small fee to visit. I think it was 4 euros each.
Despite the wind blowing at least 50 knots, the views were excellent. The Skelling Michael islands are just visible in the distance on the middle right of the below photo.
This view is worth 8 euros all day long!
I’m just glad my phone didn’t fly out of my hand with the wind blowing like it was! Kim’s hair gives you an indication of the strength of the wind!
Our last stop on the Ring of Kerry was on Valentina Island, where we visited a spot with 385-million-year-old fossilised footprints from the earliest land-going vertebrates (amphibians) called Tetrapods.
These footprints are the oldest reliably dated evidence of four-legged amphibians moving over land. These were discovered in 1993 by an undergraduate geology student doing research on the island. 385 million years ago this site was located south of the equator…hard to imagine.
They are somewhat hard to see at high tide, when crashing waves wet the rock. Below is zoomed in.
A photo from an angle seems to show the footprints better.
A depiction from an informative sign shows the entire track on this rock, but we could only see a portion of the tracks they portray. It might have been better to visit when the rock wasn’t wet. Still a very cool site!
Two full days on the Ring of Kerry, and we still didn’t finish the entire Ring. We hit the best parts though, and loved every section of it.
Next up, Dingle and Slea Head Drive.
Outstanding photos! Who says the sun doesn’t shine in Ireland?