Dingle

We awoke early on Thursdays to get a solid start on our drive to Dingle. The drive was about 1 1/2 hours from Killarney, including a short portion on the Ring of Kerry.

As we turned sharply west and crested the peninsula, the lush green fields and mountains of Dingle took our breath away. We had to stop at Inch to admire the Atlantic crashing ashore and the few brave surfers in wetsuits splashing below. the scenery here is the best and most like what I envisioned Ireland to be like. It's got 30 shades of green, sheep dotting here and there and rows of walls that are literally hundreds of years old.

We made our way to the statue of the local famous Dolphin, Fungie. There we met our guide, Michael Collins, who escorted us on an archaeology tour of the peninsula. We loaded up in his mini bus (large van) with 6 others and set out for a delightful tour of the ancient ruins in the area.

These ranged from stone slabs with hatchmarks to dry stone beehive buildings that are still standing after 1200+ years. The tour truly was amazing, filled with lots of interesting stories and facts. Michael did a great job of providing interesting background along with answering our questions about how/why/who lived in these engineering wonders. I had absolutely no idea that these existed.

The majority of these structures were built by monastic groups who fled mainland Europe in pursuit of a quiet, hard-working life that they believed would bring them closer to God. These people seemed to combine the pagan existing traditions with Christina ones, often making them a hybrid of religions.

One monastery that we did not get to visit is located on Skellig Michael. This is a very remote island sitting west of the Dingle Penninsula. It also happens to be where Star Wars: the Force Awakens last scene was filmed. And they filmed \Episode VIII nearby last year. Can't wait to rewatch that scene!