Kerry
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The Dingle Peninsula
Our route took us westwards to skirt round the south of Tralee Bay. The Slieve Mish Mountains rise to a respectable 2800ft on your left before we turned off the main road for Castlegregory - accommodation and food is available if you're planning to stop. Take a trip out to Rough Point for views of the Magharee Islands.
As a day trip from Dingle you can follow the coast road past Ventry Harbour to make for Slea Head as it looks out over to Great Blasket Island and beyond. This is about as close as you're going to get to America and, as if to prove the point, there's a pub called Kruger's Bar claiming to be the nearest pub to America. All that, and the fact that parts of "Ryan's Daughter" were filmed nearby...
Leaving Dingle, and if you've time, it's better to try and avoid the main road if you can. Take a diversion to look at Minard Castle. The next place of any size is Annascaul where you'll find a welcome in Dan Foley's bar - it's one of these that appears on numerous post cards...er, and very nice it is, too. If you want to do a short run from Annascaul, try the road up to Lough Anscaul, a couple of miles or so to the north. To get back to Tralee there's a choice of taking the main road - about 25 miles - or skirting round to the south of the Slieve Mish Mountains by Castlemaine Harbour, which is a little longer |
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near Slea Head |
Dingle |
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Great Blasket Island |
croft |
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Brandon Mountain |
Slea Head |
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The Dingle Peninsula juts out into the Atlantic from the SE corner of Ireland in county Kerry. You can take a train to Tralee - bikes go for half price but it's still a fairly expensive business. Tralee itself is quite a large and bustling place. The harbour is a mile or so from the centre of town and is one of several where emmigrants would set sail for America.
The route to Dingle takes in the long haul over the Connar Pass at around 1200ft. You'll have earned a rest at the top and a chance to take in the views which have been dominated on the way up by Brandon Mountain at over 3000ft. Enjoy the reward of a long roll down into Dingle, a colourful place with plenty of places to stay and/or eat.
There are any number of variants on this circular trip so pick the one that suits you.
