Dingle Way - Blasket Islands

After our first two days of walking we had scheduled a day to visit great Blasket Island. The Blasket Islands lay just off the Dingle Peninsular and were home to some of Irelands best loved writers.

The Islands have been largely uninhabited since 1953. Today there is a small but growing community who live on Great Blasket Island and work is being done to restore some of the buildings. It remains an isolated outpost and hardy souls who chose to visit and stay on the island have to bring in all their needs.

I had booked seats on a boat operated by Billy O'Connor that transports people out to Great Blasket Island. Here is what Billy's promo has to say:

Please note facilities are limited on the Great Blasket Island. However we feel this adds to the appeal of the Great Blasket experience which brings you back in time and back to basics. Below is a list of recently renovated amenities provided for self catering accommodation :

- Running water

- Toilets

- Showers (sometimes cold)

- Gas cookers

- Beds and bed linen

Note the island has no electricity and therefore no Wi-Fi, no internet, no electronic devices and certainly no TV, however you will have real life experience camp fires, watch the sunset in one of the most westerly points in Europe. All sailings to and from the island are weather dependent. Mobile Phone reception is available. Please bring all food needed. Basic self catering breakfast is provided in the hostel.

For further information please visit  www.greatblasketisland.net as we offer package deals which include ferry to the island, accommodation and basic breakfast in the café.  We understand that this accommodation is not for everyone, but we have had great feedback and customer satisfaction from what we do have.

Ferry's to the Great Blasket Island are available from Dingle marina daily.

In the end only Trevor, Jen and I went out to great Blasket Island. sue and Michelle elected to spend the day in Dingle.

The Dingle Marina parking area was full of tour buses and this is not yet the height of the season!  Quite a number of boats take groups out on harbour cruises which include the possibility of seeing the resident dolphin, Fungie.

Shortly before midday Billy arrived at the Dingle Marina having already done a run out to the island.  His boat is licenced to carry 12 passengers and there were 12 of us who boarded. As we headed out through the harbour we kept an eye out for Fungie however there were far too many boats circling in the target area and Billy promised that we would have a greater chance of spotting Fungie on our return as most of the other boats would have finished for the day by then.

Leaving the Dingle Marina

We had seen the rugged coastline from the land but the views from the sea were more spectacular by far.

There are a large number of islands just off the Dingle Peninsula from tiny specs in the ocean to reasonably sized ones.

Finally we had a view of Great Blasket Island and its abanoned, and now ruined, dwellings.

Getting ashore required us to transfer to a Zodiac and be landed on a rough ramp.

Passengers transferring to the Zodiac

 Once on shore we headed up to the cafe which operates out of one of the repaired dwellings.

The cafe was well patronised

once lunch was consumed I headed off to walk around the island. There was plenty of time to do this as we had 4 hours on the island. Jen and Trevor did a walk up to one of the high points while I was doing my circumnavagation.

Some of the abandoned houses on Great Blasket Island

I can see the attraction that the island had for writers. There is very little to interrupt the creative juices except perhaps the thought of whether there was enough food in the larder for a meal. The isolation of the island, only accessable in good weather, certainly called for toughness in those who chose to live there. Yes, the wild beaty of the place would have been some compensation and there was certainly a community of folk who lived there but it certainly was not the sort of life tht most of us would choose.

The sea was a bit choppy as we returned to the boat. This made the transfer from the zodiac to the boat a little more challenging. This all added to the fun of the day.

On the return trip to Dingle we came along under the cliffs which allowed us to view a seagull nursery as well as some of the geological features at close range.

Coming back to the harbour entrance we did come across Fungie.

The couple in the boat have been coming out to visit Fungie every day since 1991.

Fungie was a very large dolphin.

The weather had been great and the scenery going to and from the island was great. Visiting the island certainly put the isolation of the inhabitants into perspective.

Dingle Way - day 2: Annascaul to Dingle

After a great Irish breakfast we farewelled Trevor and the four girls headed out. The day was fine and warm. Yes, this is Ireland.

Sue, Michelle and Jen striding up the road

Leaving the village of Annascaul behind we followed a number of increasingly small roads up and over a ridge before descending to a small cove fringed by shingles. Actually, they were huge smooth rocks rather than stones. More shortly.

The views across the valleys were lovely with stone walls aplenty, brilliant green fields and the odd section of trees.

Standing just above the cove are the ruins of Minard Castle, a tower house built in the 16th century and destroyed by Cromwell's forces in 1650.

From Minard Castle we climbed up onto a ridge and walked along a number of tracks and minor roads.

Our lunch stop was at Katie's just before we reached Lispole. Katie's had been recommended to us as the sandwiches were fresh made to order. Which they were. The coffee was not all that crash hot, though.

After lunch we walked along a road above Lispole before dropping down to cross the Owenalondrig river before heading up, yet again. We were quickly learning that walking in Ireland means up and down aplenty.

We passed along a number of farm lanes, called boreens locally.

After quite a long haul up slopes we then did a transverse and then managed to do a wrong turn. By the time this error was discovered we had walked quite a way down, and I mean down, a road. Retracing our steps did not seem like a good option. We were pretty sure that there were other approaches to Dingle than the planned one.

Our detour did have one positive. We passed a fine example of a medieval stone bridge on the Garlinny River.

Our deviation added some 4kms to our walking distance and we were really pleased to finally make it in to Dingle.

We used a range of styles of stiles today as we made our way over walls:

 The flora along the tracks and roads continued to impress.

There was also some stunning coastal views:

In the end we walked 23km instead of the scheduled 19km.

Dingle Way - day 1

Trevor and I flew out of Canberra for Ade;aide just after 6pm on Thursday. The flight was a little late but of no concern as we had plenty of time in Adelaide. The flight on to Dubai was OK and I managed a reasonable about of uncomfortable sleep.

We were meeting Jen and Sue in Dubai as they were flying in from Melbourne. Both our inbound flights trundled around the ground on arrival and then we were bused to the terminal. This all took time. Fortunately, our flight was on time arriving over Dubai and we got to the departure lounge witha bit of time to spare. Sue and Jen were nowhere to be seen. Everyone boarded the plane and still no sisters.

Eventually a stream of late ariving passengers boarded, among them Jen and Sue. Relief! Their plane out of Melbourne had been delayed by an hour.

Our passage through Dublin airport was fairly painless and we stopped for a coffee before heading out to catch the bus over to the station.

The train trip from Dublin to Tralee was pleasant and we were amused by the announcments in gaelic   many of which seemed to finish with "here or there"but wasn't at all. We were all a little tired and it helped to keep us going.

Sue and Trevor on the train to Tralee

The train took us past picturesque farms and through a number of villages and the odd town. We were on an express so had only limited stops which was good.

The countryside was the expected green.

There was the odd shower of rain as we approached Tralee but this had cleared by the time we arrived.


The the help of a couple of locals we found The Imperial Hotel, where we were to stay for our first 2 nights.

After dinner in a nearby pub we all headed off to bed for a proper sleep.

Saturday
After a very pleasant breakfast Trevor, Jen, Sue and Michelle (the 5th member of our party) headed off to Killarney for the day while I remained in Tralee.

Around lunchtime I headed out and wandered through the rather pleasant town park which had an area dedicated to the "Rose of Tralee".

Just inside the entrace to Tralee's town park

The very impressive looking toilet block just inside the town park

The "rose of Tralee" statue

Yes, there were roses although only a few in bloom

The town park was quite large. most was just open grassland with paths. The park was being well used by locals and visitors alike. The children's play area was very crowded.

I continued my wander around the town and then it started to rain lightly and I headed indoors again.

We had been hoping to hear some live music on Saturday night. Lots of places had signs up indicating that they had live music. Unfortuantely for us the Eupoean football final was on and this meant that the music would not be starting until 10:30ish so we called it quits and headed back to the Imperial and bed.

Oh, it was light until around 11pm. The following photo was taken around 10:30pm from our window.

Sunday: walking day 1
After another substantial breakfast we dragged our luggage down to the hotel entrance and were collected and driven out to Camp, the starting point for the walk. Trevor was not up to the 17km walk with its ups and down and elected to go on the Annascaul with our bags.

Sue and Jen getting ready to set off

We headed off to the pass over the a western outlier of the Slieve Mish Mountains. The uphill bit seemed to go on and on. Some of the lanes we walk along had a profusion of floral that had overtaken the originals stone walls. I was rather surprised to see many plants that we would consider to be garden specimens growing in wild profusion along so many road and laneways. Fuchias were particularly prevelant.

There wer some great views as we trundled along.

And many fallen down stone cottages ... replaced by much grander abodes.

Some of the laneways and roads we walked along:

The countryside was dotted with sheep

and brooks

and, of course, mountains

and the sea

We should have gone down and walked along Inch beach but the path had a gate across it and a sign that stated we should keep out and to be aware of the bull. Expecting another track further along to take us down to inch and the promise of a toilet and other facilities we continued on. We never did get down to the beach but we did had great views of it.

There are stiles in ireland, too, and here is Sue tackling the one we came across just above Inch.

We stopped for lunch on a grassy spot which was only a little damp.

We were quite close to Annascaul where we were stopping for the night. Even so, the long, straight downhill road seemed like quite a drag.

We were early. Our B&B welcomed guests from 4pm. We could have rung the bell but instead retired to the pub across the road for a coffee and a chance to put our feet up.

Annascaul's favourite son is the Antarctic explorer Tom Crean. Our nearby pub was the South Pole Inn and boasted live music from 5 to 8 on Saturday and Sunday.

With a bit of free time I set off to check out a bit of Annascaul. I eventually made my way to the local burial ground the the final resting place of Tom Crean.

Yes, the burial gound was very uneven underfoot

The townwas surrounded by mountains and ridges. While most of the fields have reasonable straight boundaries some don't.

I finally caught up with the rest of the group at the B&B.

After some pleasant music across at the South Pole Inn, sitting in the warm sun, and a decent meal, we headed back to the B&B for a well earned rest.