Page 313 - Lonely Planet Europe’s Best Trips (Travel Guide)

The Drive »Follow the N70
for about 18km and then turn
left onto the R567, cutting
through some of the wildest HOLGER LEUE/GETTY IMAGES ©
and most beautiful scenery on
the peninsula, with the ragged
outline of Skellig Michael never
far from view. Turn left onto the
R565; the whole drive is 35km
long.

c Portmagee &
Valentia Island
Portmagee’s single street
is a rainbow of colourful
houses, and is much pho-
tographed. On summer
mornings, the small pier Derrynane Estuary Horseriding near Caherdaniel
comes to life with boats
embarking on the choppy The island makes an for Puck Fair, Ireland’s
crossing to the Skellig ideal driving loop. From best-known extant pagan
Islands. April to October, there’s festival.
A bridge links Portma- a frequent, quick ferry First recorded in 1603,
gee to 11km-long Valentia trip at one end, as well as with hazy origins, this
Island (Oileán Dairbhre), the bridge to Portmagee lively (read: boozy) festival
an altogether homier on the mainland at the is based around the cus-
isle than the brooding other end. tom of installing a billy
Skelligs to the southwest. goat (a poc, or puck), the
Like the Skellig Ring The Drive »On the 55km symbol of mountainous
drive between Portmagee and
it leads to, Valentia is Killorglin, keep the mountains Kerry, on a pedestal in the
an essential, coach-free to your right (south) and the town, its horns festooned
detour from the Ring of sea – when you’re near it – to with ribbons. Other en-
Kerry. Some lonely ruins your left (north). Twenty-four tertainment ranges from
are worth exploring. kilometres along is the unusual a horse fair and bonny
Valentia was chosen Glenbeigh Strand, a tendril of baby competition to street
as the site for the first sand protruding into Dingle Bay theatre, concerts and
transatlantic telegraph with views of Inch Point and the fireworks; the pubs stay
Dingle Peninsula.
cable. When the connec- open until 3am.
tion was made in 1858, it Author Blake Morrison
put Caherciveen in direct d Killorglin documents his mother’s
contact with New York. childhood here in Things
The link worked for 27 Killorglin (Cill Orglan) is My Mother Never Told Me.
days before failing, but a quiet enough town, but
that all changes in mid-
went back into action
years later. August, when the town
erupts in celebration

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