10-30-2019, 09:58 AM
Day Four - Beara Peninsula 'Quest for Stone Circles'
Day 4 - Beara Peninsula All Day
Lynch’s on the pier is not great. Although our room is big, it’s dark because of lack of lighting. Plus, we are right across the way from the very industrial looking petrol station. It pales in comparison to Gabriel Guesthouse.
That being said, our host Darren is incredibly pleasant and serves a great breakfast. The main concern for Lynch’s on the Pier is the restaurant on the main floor. That’s where we had breakfast before the restaurant opened. We could have anything we wanted but we stuck to the small Irish which is eggs, bacon, sausage and toast. Irish Sausage will make you a meat convert.
Our first stop for the day was the Derreenatagart Stone Circle about two minutes outside of Castletownbere. We got there just as the sun started to peak over the mountains. A young Irish man stumbled out of the field asking us for an iPhone charger.
As is usual in most of the Stone Circles we’ve seen, this one had flowers and tokens adorning the rocks. We took a lot of pictures.
From there, we went to see the Dursey Island Cable Car. Dursey is a small island off the end of the Beara Peninsula. The straight between the mainland and the island was so rough it was better to have a cable car to ferry things across than use boats. There was a picture in the Lynch’s restaurant showing a cow coming out of the not very big cable car.
Have I mentioned the sun was shining all day? It was. It made for great pictures all around the area. Such a difference from the day before.
Then it was on to Alihies to see the Children of Lir stone. Lir’s kids were turned into swans for 900 years because of a problem with the new step-mom. These stones are supposed to be where the kids were eventually buried after returning to land and dying. It’s a stone. Why it’s the Lir stone, I don’t know. Kids come and put coins on it to celebrate Lir’s kids. It’s all very strange.
Alihies is best known for having the largest copper mind in the world at the time. That time being the 1820s to 1890s. One beach near the town was made from the 1000000 waste tons of quartz leftover from the extraction process. We visited the museum. We ate lunch at ONeills.
Google was still being helpful and showed us exactly to our next spot, the Hag of Beara. The hag stole a priest’s bible and was turned into a stone for her trouble. It’s another stone. Almost as exciting as the Lir’s children stone. I was hoping for some impressive edifice after reading about it. But no. It comes up to about waste high.
We made another stop at Kilcatherine cemetery. This cemetery was supposed to be made or have monks buried from the Skellig Islands of Stars Wars fame. Although they were famous well before Star Wars filmed there.
We took the tiny roads around the peninsula in search of a lookout that never materialized.
Since this was Stone Circle day on our journey, our next stop was the Ardgroom Stone Circle. Ardgroom, may it’s name live in infamy.
The Ardgroom circle lies in a farmers field about 200 yards from the parking spot. You have to climb over two fences to get there using two of these special ladders supplied by the park service or whatever it’s equivalent is here in Ireland. Climbing the ladders was not a problem.
The problem was the marsh created by the water from the pond above the fields. The first field was wet. But if you were careful, you could walk on some tall grasses to avoid getting your feet soaking wet. The middle field was pretty firm. The final field was a pain in the ass. No matter where you stepped you sank. I could hear the queen scream behind me as she sank up to her ankles in the mud. I tired trails high and low to avoid the water. My shoes were still full of water by the time I got to the stone circle.
At least the Ardgroom Stone Circle was magnificent….. Yeah, not so much. It was overgrown. The stones were that big and many were missing. Yes, I’m spoiled at seeing stone circles. We took pictures. We tried to avoid going back to the car. But it had to be done.
But I was thinking that we had seen the worst of it. I felt I could chart a pretty good path back to the ladder over the fence. Yeah, not so much.
I was doing a pretty good job until I got to the last stream before the ladder over the fence. I’d found some firm high spots. I saw a bit of hard sand next to the river I could step on to make my way across.
Yeah, not so much.
As soon as I placed my left foot on the sand, I sank up to my knee in the mud. I lost my balance and put my right leg down in the river. Importantly, I did not lose my camera in the mud or water. I was able to find a small dry patch to set it down while I figured out to extract my leg from the mud without losing my shoe.
My shoe desperately wanted to stay in the mud. But I gingerly pulled my leg up and kept the shoe.
The Queen was more successful in her walk through the marsh. She had seen my mishap, keeping the laughter to a minimum. She was also kind enough to only take a few photos.
I made it up and back over the ladder to the drier field. The third field, the original horror, was now a piece of cake. When you are that soaking wet from the waist down, a few little streams barely register.
At this point lesser men would have called it a day and gone back to Lynch’s on the pier, had a nice hot shower, and put on some clean clothes. But I am not a lesser man. Yes, the Queen looked aghast when I mentioned there were only two more monuments to visit and they weren’t that far away. I think there was lot of teeth gritting and internal swearing when she acquiesced to continue. Sure, it was only a few miles up the road. Plus, I could use the heated seat to dry off my shorts.
Google announced we had arrived when there was still no sign of the place. I think Google had had enough for the day as well. Since there were no turnouts on the road, we continued. Sure enough a couple hundreds yards passed where we should have found it, the sign for the Cashelkeelty Stone Circle appeared on our right.
At breakfast, Darren had said this was his favorite hike, because you got to go through the forest alongside a river before getting to the main trail up to the circle. I should have listened more closely when he said up the trail. Turns out that Cashelkeelty was on top of a hill.
The Queen went on ahead while I went back to get my phone from the car. I found the phone in my pocket after I got back to the car. Maybe I was getting a bit tired? Perish the thought. I am not a lesser man.
By the time I caught up to the queen, she was sitting on her ass by the side of a small brook we had to ford. Her attempt to cross proved less than successful. I kept my schadenfreude laughter to a minimum. There was some branches overhead a group of stones that made the river crossing a bit easier than where the Queen attempted to jump across.
Yes, the hike would have been tremendous through the forest. The river fell over many cascades besides. But it was late in the day. We were both wet. And the forest was quite dark this late in the day. We pressed onward.
After the forest, there was a long slog up a gravel road that had water running though it on occasion. We had to go over three fences by climbing the now hated ladders. I thought I saw our eventual destination off the trail and headed towards them. It turned out to be just a grouping of random stones that might have been something but it wasn’t defined enough.
I had to jump across a small brook brook to get back to our gravel path. The Queen who was a few minutes behind followed into the same field but couldn’t find a way back out and had to backtrack for a long way.
All the time we hiked, the sun crept closer to going behind a hill. It also played peekaboo with the cloud. I moved fast because I feared the sunlight would be gone by the time we reached Cashelkeelty.
Arrived, we eventually did. And let me tell you the excitement at seeing this ancient structure was not to be found. It was less than overwhelming. There were two groups of a couple of stones. One of the stones was kind of big. At one grouping, you could see Kenmare Bay in the background. The other circle with the big stone was up against a fence so you get to see a fence in all the pictures.
A little voice in the back of my head almost said it wasn’t worth it, but I quashed that quickly. We had to hang out around the stones, waiting for the sun to reappear. Usually that’s a glorious moment when the sun comes and brightens the world around us. This time it meant we could finally get our shots and get the hell out of there.
The Queen wanted me to stay with her on the hike back down fearing a repeat of walking off into fields unknown. I was good with that. The forest was just as dark on the way down. We crossed the stream without incident.
The hotel, it’s clean clothes, and it’s shower looked pretty good at this point. I opted to head there rather than go to the final stone circle. This made the Queen happy.
We dragged a lot of dirt and mud through our hotel room. Our filthy shoes and jeans were consigned to a blast bag. The Queen asked when I thought they might dry out. I said “When we leave Ireland”
For dinner, we went back to Murphy’s. The food is good there and it’s probably the only restaurant in town.
A full day.
Day 4 - Beara Peninsula All Day
Lynch’s on the pier is not great. Although our room is big, it’s dark because of lack of lighting. Plus, we are right across the way from the very industrial looking petrol station. It pales in comparison to Gabriel Guesthouse.
That being said, our host Darren is incredibly pleasant and serves a great breakfast. The main concern for Lynch’s on the Pier is the restaurant on the main floor. That’s where we had breakfast before the restaurant opened. We could have anything we wanted but we stuck to the small Irish which is eggs, bacon, sausage and toast. Irish Sausage will make you a meat convert.
Our first stop for the day was the Derreenatagart Stone Circle about two minutes outside of Castletownbere. We got there just as the sun started to peak over the mountains. A young Irish man stumbled out of the field asking us for an iPhone charger.
As is usual in most of the Stone Circles we’ve seen, this one had flowers and tokens adorning the rocks. We took a lot of pictures.
From there, we went to see the Dursey Island Cable Car. Dursey is a small island off the end of the Beara Peninsula. The straight between the mainland and the island was so rough it was better to have a cable car to ferry things across than use boats. There was a picture in the Lynch’s restaurant showing a cow coming out of the not very big cable car.
Have I mentioned the sun was shining all day? It was. It made for great pictures all around the area. Such a difference from the day before.
Then it was on to Alihies to see the Children of Lir stone. Lir’s kids were turned into swans for 900 years because of a problem with the new step-mom. These stones are supposed to be where the kids were eventually buried after returning to land and dying. It’s a stone. Why it’s the Lir stone, I don’t know. Kids come and put coins on it to celebrate Lir’s kids. It’s all very strange.
Alihies is best known for having the largest copper mind in the world at the time. That time being the 1820s to 1890s. One beach near the town was made from the 1000000 waste tons of quartz leftover from the extraction process. We visited the museum. We ate lunch at ONeills.
Google was still being helpful and showed us exactly to our next spot, the Hag of Beara. The hag stole a priest’s bible and was turned into a stone for her trouble. It’s another stone. Almost as exciting as the Lir’s children stone. I was hoping for some impressive edifice after reading about it. But no. It comes up to about waste high.
We made another stop at Kilcatherine cemetery. This cemetery was supposed to be made or have monks buried from the Skellig Islands of Stars Wars fame. Although they were famous well before Star Wars filmed there.
We took the tiny roads around the peninsula in search of a lookout that never materialized.
Since this was Stone Circle day on our journey, our next stop was the Ardgroom Stone Circle. Ardgroom, may it’s name live in infamy.
The Ardgroom circle lies in a farmers field about 200 yards from the parking spot. You have to climb over two fences to get there using two of these special ladders supplied by the park service or whatever it’s equivalent is here in Ireland. Climbing the ladders was not a problem.
The problem was the marsh created by the water from the pond above the fields. The first field was wet. But if you were careful, you could walk on some tall grasses to avoid getting your feet soaking wet. The middle field was pretty firm. The final field was a pain in the ass. No matter where you stepped you sank. I could hear the queen scream behind me as she sank up to her ankles in the mud. I tired trails high and low to avoid the water. My shoes were still full of water by the time I got to the stone circle.
At least the Ardgroom Stone Circle was magnificent….. Yeah, not so much. It was overgrown. The stones were that big and many were missing. Yes, I’m spoiled at seeing stone circles. We took pictures. We tried to avoid going back to the car. But it had to be done.
But I was thinking that we had seen the worst of it. I felt I could chart a pretty good path back to the ladder over the fence. Yeah, not so much.
I was doing a pretty good job until I got to the last stream before the ladder over the fence. I’d found some firm high spots. I saw a bit of hard sand next to the river I could step on to make my way across.
Yeah, not so much.
As soon as I placed my left foot on the sand, I sank up to my knee in the mud. I lost my balance and put my right leg down in the river. Importantly, I did not lose my camera in the mud or water. I was able to find a small dry patch to set it down while I figured out to extract my leg from the mud without losing my shoe.
My shoe desperately wanted to stay in the mud. But I gingerly pulled my leg up and kept the shoe.
The Queen was more successful in her walk through the marsh. She had seen my mishap, keeping the laughter to a minimum. She was also kind enough to only take a few photos.
I made it up and back over the ladder to the drier field. The third field, the original horror, was now a piece of cake. When you are that soaking wet from the waist down, a few little streams barely register.
At this point lesser men would have called it a day and gone back to Lynch’s on the pier, had a nice hot shower, and put on some clean clothes. But I am not a lesser man. Yes, the Queen looked aghast when I mentioned there were only two more monuments to visit and they weren’t that far away. I think there was lot of teeth gritting and internal swearing when she acquiesced to continue. Sure, it was only a few miles up the road. Plus, I could use the heated seat to dry off my shorts.
Google announced we had arrived when there was still no sign of the place. I think Google had had enough for the day as well. Since there were no turnouts on the road, we continued. Sure enough a couple hundreds yards passed where we should have found it, the sign for the Cashelkeelty Stone Circle appeared on our right.
At breakfast, Darren had said this was his favorite hike, because you got to go through the forest alongside a river before getting to the main trail up to the circle. I should have listened more closely when he said up the trail. Turns out that Cashelkeelty was on top of a hill.
The Queen went on ahead while I went back to get my phone from the car. I found the phone in my pocket after I got back to the car. Maybe I was getting a bit tired? Perish the thought. I am not a lesser man.
By the time I caught up to the queen, she was sitting on her ass by the side of a small brook we had to ford. Her attempt to cross proved less than successful. I kept my schadenfreude laughter to a minimum. There was some branches overhead a group of stones that made the river crossing a bit easier than where the Queen attempted to jump across.
Yes, the hike would have been tremendous through the forest. The river fell over many cascades besides. But it was late in the day. We were both wet. And the forest was quite dark this late in the day. We pressed onward.
After the forest, there was a long slog up a gravel road that had water running though it on occasion. We had to go over three fences by climbing the now hated ladders. I thought I saw our eventual destination off the trail and headed towards them. It turned out to be just a grouping of random stones that might have been something but it wasn’t defined enough.
I had to jump across a small brook brook to get back to our gravel path. The Queen who was a few minutes behind followed into the same field but couldn’t find a way back out and had to backtrack for a long way.
All the time we hiked, the sun crept closer to going behind a hill. It also played peekaboo with the cloud. I moved fast because I feared the sunlight would be gone by the time we reached Cashelkeelty.
Arrived, we eventually did. And let me tell you the excitement at seeing this ancient structure was not to be found. It was less than overwhelming. There were two groups of a couple of stones. One of the stones was kind of big. At one grouping, you could see Kenmare Bay in the background. The other circle with the big stone was up against a fence so you get to see a fence in all the pictures.
A little voice in the back of my head almost said it wasn’t worth it, but I quashed that quickly. We had to hang out around the stones, waiting for the sun to reappear. Usually that’s a glorious moment when the sun comes and brightens the world around us. This time it meant we could finally get our shots and get the hell out of there.
The Queen wanted me to stay with her on the hike back down fearing a repeat of walking off into fields unknown. I was good with that. The forest was just as dark on the way down. We crossed the stream without incident.
The hotel, it’s clean clothes, and it’s shower looked pretty good at this point. I opted to head there rather than go to the final stone circle. This made the Queen happy.
We dragged a lot of dirt and mud through our hotel room. Our filthy shoes and jeans were consigned to a blast bag. The Queen asked when I thought they might dry out. I said “When we leave Ireland”
For dinner, we went back to Murphy’s. The food is good there and it’s probably the only restaurant in town.
A full day.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm