If you go to Ireland, you HAVE to visit Dingle! Many tourists have the misconception that the best views are in the Ring of Kerry, but they are sadly mistaken. While it is a gorgeous scenic drive, it does not even compare to the Dingle peninsula. We drove down from Galway and did one half on the first day making our way to the next b&b. From the highest points of the mountains, to the low middles of valleys, it is truly on of the most amazing places I’ve seen in person.
Dingle is home to a famous dolphin named Fungie. It is believed that he was separated from his pack when he was young and made the Dingle bay is home. He is super friendly with tourists and the spirit of Dingle. We passed Dingle Distillery on our way into town and snagged the last two spots for the afternoon tour.
That evening our host gave us a ride downtown and insisted that we eat at the Chart House and explore the local pubs. The following day we finished our loop around and visited the beehive huts, played with some puppies. and held a baby lamb that pooped on Al!
Food & Drink…
Chart House: Dingle follows Irish tradition of pubs and restaurants meaning the bars do not serve food. We ate dinner at Chart House, and I recommend making a reservation although our B&B host told us to mention him and we got in without an issue. They open around 6:30pm and offer a 3 course dinner for 35$ a person. The attire is flexible, we wore jeans and t shirts but the plating is fairly daunting so don’t feel intimidated when they bring out a beautifully plated dish that you feel like you should be wearing a shirt and tie to eat.
O’Flaherty’s: This pub is a family owned business and run by Fergus who is a talented musician. He plays 7 instruments and encourages the crowd to join him in song. We met a firefighter from Chicopee MA and chatted with him most of the night. The bartender booked us a taxi with Sean who was definitely the most brash driver in Ireland, but we arrived back at the B&B safely.
Foxy John Moriarty’s: This pub is owned by relatives of O’Flaherty’s and is a very unique place. By day it is a hardware store, by night a pub. We caught the tail end of their trad session and hung out for a beer afterwards.
Dingle Distillery: We saw this while driving to our B&B and did the tour which also had a very generous tasting included. The man who narrated the tour was a huge history buff and entertaining speaker. We really enjoyed listening to him talk about everything from Ireland’s history to the alcohol business and all the way to political conundrums throughout the world. Al wants to hire him to narrate his life.
Bed & Breakfast – Ard Na Mara
Ann and Derry Murphy are a wonderfully generous couple who run a B&B in Ventry on the Dingle peninsula. It’s about 2 miles from downtown and our room had a gorgeous water view. Ann was a sweetheart and saw our clothes line strung across our room in a feeble effort to do laundry while on the road and hung our things outside to dry when we were out while the weather was nice.
Dunmore Head – Star Wars film site
Despite their lush green appearance we learned that it is actually very difficult to grow crops on the peninsula. There are fields today from the famine that failed to grow vegetation and have still not been reclaimed
The Beehive Huts
Coumeenoole Ogham Stone
The Blasket Islands
Island of Inis Tuaisceart
