Ring of Kerry

The Ring of Kerry, easily accessible from Killarney or Kenmare on an Ireland vacation,  is where you can enjoy not only spectacular beauty but also discover ancient sites, stone forts, old monasteries and several castles all amid a landscape carved out of rock by the last Ice Age.  The Ring, a peninsula jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean in southwest Ireland, is approximately 180 kilometres/112 miles in circumference and the main route follows the coast around, ringed by scenic mountains and lakes with views everywhere of the ocean.

When on Ireland tours, stops can be made at the laid-back village of Sneem, Staigue Fort, an imposing sight rising out of a desolate high valley. Derrynane House, once the home of Daniel O'Connell, Ireland's most influential pre-independence politician, two ring forts, Cahergal and Leacanabuaile and the Kerry Bog Village Museum which re-creates a 19th Century bog village typical of the small communities that carved out a precarious living in the harsh environment of Ireland's ubiquitous peat bogs. The Gap of Dunloe is a picturesque area with 5 lakes, all connected by the River Loe. A popular form of transportation here is the horse-drawn trap, a cart where up to four occupants sit facing each other.

The jagged, 217-metre/705 feet high rock of Skellig Michael is the larger of the two Skellig Islands and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Early Christian monks established a community and survived here as far back as the 6th Century. The buildings are perched on a rock above sea level and reached by 600 steep steps cut into the rock face. There is also an established walking path named The Kerry Way, which takes its own route, and a signposted Ring of Kerry cycling path which uses older quieter roads where possible. The Kerry Way roughly follows the scenic driving route of the Ring of Kerry on an Ireland vacation.