Now we are on the southwest coast of Ireland, on part of the Ring of Kerry and the Wild Atlantic Way. Our Seaside Cottage (3 km East of Portmagee) is great - overlooking, and with access to, the strait between the mainland and Valentia Island (sound? narrows? no name on google maps for this body of water!). Really an incredible location. Our first evening came with a spectacular sunset.

Today we explored two ring forts (really more like fortified ring households). One was built anywhen from 400 BC to 1200 AD and the other one was determined to have been built in the 9th or 10th century. 

Then we headed for the Kerry Cliffs - the area is preceded by small billboards announcing, "The most magnificent cliffs in Kerry!" And they are indeed magnificent!

A look back toward Portmagee
from the access point to the cliffs

Skellig Michael Islands, which we visited
(see description below)

Torc Waterfall in the Killarney National Park. Unbelievable green! Also enjoyed a little time on the shore of Muckross Lake.

We took a pretty easy drive/hike to the top of (and around) Geokaun Mountain. Some great views. At the bottom of the ‘mountain’ (about 1,000 feet elevation) on the rocky shoreline we visited the tetrapod trackway, a set of footprints from 385 million years ago, left by a one-meter long salamander-like creature. Cool. 

Tetrapod tracks 

Thursday, we went to what may be the crown jewel of our visit in Ireland - Skellig Michael island. An easy one-hour boat ride brought us first to Little Skellig and it’s tens of thousands of nesting birds - the beautiful gannets. Then, on to Greater Skellig, for the early Christian monastery ruins, which include so-called beehive huts, built around the 7th century by a very reclusive group of monks, founded by and dedicated to St. Fionan. (Fun fact: I read that there may have been two St. Fionans: St. Fionan the Squint-Eyed and St. Fionan the Leper. “…Or perhaps St. Fionan had leprosy in his eye.”) 

There is also a small ancient cemetery, walls, other small structures, and of course the hundreds of steps (most of which are original) that must be climbed to get to the top. The whole trip was breathtaking. The puffins were beautiful and hilarious, seemingly nearly tame, and very talkative, in a grumbling, buzzing, moaning kind of way, especially from within their burrow-holes. I was originally concerned that the puffins there would be elusive and difficult to spot… As it turned out, there were many thousands of them, and you could essentially walk right up and look one in the eye. At times we had to watch out for them while going up or down the steps. Lots of pics below.

Great Skellig

Little Skellig

Friday we drove to Shannon, stayed one night in a hotel, then dropped Kelsey at the airport early Saturday morning for her return home to Washington state after spending a wonderful three weeks with us. After dropping her off, Eileen and I went to the wonderful ruin Quin Abbey near Shannon - largely intact and a joy to explore!