Dingle Way - day 4: Dunquin to Ballydavid

The started with a very pleasant breakfast.

Early on it was a bit hazy but it cleared as the day wore on.

The first part of the days walk was an uphill section which seemed to go on and on. The route was a mix of quiet roads, tracks, laneways and main roads.

This bit of laneway was more like a creek than a lane

We had an early stop at the Louis Mulcahy pottery studio/outlet. A couple of potters were working in the downstairs studio and we watched them working for a while before heading upstairs to the showroom, cafe and tiolets. There was some very nice pottery on display and the prices were quite reasonable. The coffee was good, too, as were the food offerings. Jen had a cake with lemon syrup while I had a scone.

If you would like to see some of the work of Louis Mulcahy go to www.louismulcahy.com

The Dingle Way continued with mostly road walking nand the odd bit of walking over grassland. The road was certainly preferred to bog on the flat coastal strip.

The views were good with a glorious blue sky and sea.

The route took us down to a beach for a 1.4km walk over sand.

When we arrived at the small settlement of Ballydavid we took advantage of the opportunity to get a drink before continuing along the coast and a track along the edge of some impressive cliffs.

Plants have invaded many a wall and there were spots where the floral display was impressive.

At the end of the cliff walk we doublebacked to reach our overnight accommodation. This seemed a little odd as we went back more than 2kms - 2kms that we retraced the next day.

Still, the stay at Hurley Farm was very pleasant and Mary certainly made us feel very welcome. Once she had amanaged to get us debooted she supplied fresh cakes to go with tea and coffee in the lounge room. She booked a table at a nearby restaurant for us and dropped us off and picked us up. This required two trips each way as she could not transport all five of us at once.

All up today we covered 20.35km with an elevation gain of around 250m.