Sunday 14 June 2015

Dingle Way - day 3: Dingle to Dunquin

After another lovely Irish breakfast the girls headed out leaving Trevor to wait for his lift to Dunquin.

The walking distance from Dingle to Dunquin was listed as 20km. The terrain was described as undulating roads to Ventry, then beach walking, never my favourite surface. This was followed by vehicle tracks and boreens (farm tracks) across the shoulder of Mount Eagle then main road past the spectaculor looking Slea Head and minor roads into Dunquin.

That sounded very doable.

We set out from our Dingle B&B around 9:30am. We walked along the now very familar Main Street and then down the equally familar Green Street. Yes, the street names were very original. We processeded to walk past the marina and headed out of town past numerous B&Bs which, no doubt, would have been throbbing with life if "the season" was in full swing. It may nominally be summer in Ireland but the weather has not reflected the season yet.

Once clear of the town we picked up minor roads and trundled through the countryside.

A little way outside of Ventry we had a choice: we could follow the way markers or ignore them and head in to ventry, saving 30 minutes or more. Jen and Sue elected to take the short route while Michelle and I followed the Dingle Way markers.

A duckboard along a section of boreen that could be very boggy

Much of the route was along boreens (farm tracks) which could be very muddy. Not today. There had been no rain to speak of for more than a week and the laneways were mostly dry with only the odd spot damp and muddy. Having been informed tht there would be duckboards along the boreen it was a surprise that they were a long time coming and then only a very short section.

Work was going on in the higher fields tht we passed. Rocks and scrubby material was being cleared on the fairly steep slopes. It looked as if the fields were being prepared for cuttable pastures.






Ventry turned out to be a small settlement with quite a few eateries.

Looking down across Ventry Bay

We eventually tracked down Jen and Sue at one and grabbed a coffee before heading off around Ventry Bay on the sandy beach.

Sue, Michelle and Jen walking around Ventry Bay
While walking along the beech we came across a group of youngsters participating in sack races. This was an updated version of the one we grew up with as the sacks were no longer hessian but large plastic bags.

Leaving the beach we tracked along some minor roads, paths between high hedgerows which were a riot of colour from the fuschias and other flowering plants that made up the plant communities in the hedges.





I did come across one sign that I thought was slightly amusing:




Really??  We kept to the road and didn't venture onto the farmland!!

We did do some walking along a major road. well, it is a major road for the peninsula and generally managed to have a dotted line down the centre of the road. We were warned that the road could be very busy in season. even at this relatively quiet time there was a fairly constant stream of car and lots of big tourist buses. It was good to get off the R559 and onto quieter roads, lanes and even tracks across paddocks.


There were some great views out to sea
We had quite a bit of practice climbing over stiles which seemed to get progressively taller as the day went on. There were quite a few steep sections as we gained height. We tracked along some good exampleas of dry stone walls. dry stone walls were everywhere. Some were in excellent repair while others were definitely on the way out.

The recent dryness was very much in evidence. Not only had most of the boggy spots that we had been warned about dried up but moss and grasses were shrivelling up and pulling away from the rocks they normally clung to.


We passed an area of particularly dense concentration of archeological remains. More than 500 features have been identified in the area including many clochans.



Some of the clochans we came across
It is hard to stop the flow of water in Ireland and we still had to cross a number of waterways. There variety of crossing methods from small footbridges to stepping stones.

We tracked around the rocky shoulder of Mount Eagle which afforded great views.





Mount eagle rises to a height of 516m above sea level and while jen and Sue continued on to Dunquin Michelle and I climbed the mountain. We were promised great all round views and we were not disappointed. The lovely, clear day allowed us to gaze in awe at the surrounding countryside. It was definitely worth the climb over quite rough slopes. Our biggest surprise was encountering bogs near the summit.

Lorraine on top of Mount Eagle

Looking down from Mount Eagle
Coming down the mountain we rejoined the Dingle Way. At this point the path descended quite steeply before it reached the D559 and a stretch of road walking. It would be fine walking along the road if there were shoulders but in most places there are none and the road can be edged in hedges. Care is most definitely needed.

There is a cafe in Slee Head and Michelle and I were looking forward to grabbing a coffee and, for Michelle a refill of her water bootle which was empty, so we were horrified to see someone collecting and walking away with the open sign as we approached the cafe. The door was not shut so we ventured in and asked if it was possible to get a cup of takeaway coffee and they kindly obligued and also filled up Michelle's water bottle. You cannot beat the Irish. They are certainly very obliging.

The 4km from Slea Head to Dunquin and our accommodation seemed to take forever although we did do the distance in under an hour. We were both very pleased to arrive just on 7 o'clock and take off our boots after a 30km day which included quite a bit of climbing.

The weather had been wonderful, yet again. Great for us walkers. probably not the best for the Irish countryside which is becoming parched.

Much of the higher country appears to be commons with the sheep marked in different ways to distinguish one farmer's sheep from another. Very few of the sheep have been shorn. The one below was an exception.
This sheep was marked with red across the shoulders and blue along the back.
This method of identifaction of the owner of sheep is the same as we came across when we were doing the Coast to Coast.


Dunquin, our overnight stop, has no shops although it appeared to be a reasonable sized settlement. Fortuntely where we stayed also did dinner. A bonus as we only had to walk from our rooms back to the main building.

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