Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(See “Dingle Peninsula Loop Trip” map,
here
.)
Leave Dingle town west along the waterfront (0.0 km at Ocean-world). Driving out of
town, on the left you'll see a row of humble “two up and two down” flats from a 1908
affordable housing government initiative. Today, even these little places cost more than
€200,000.
0.5 km:
There'saneight-foottidehere.Theseaweedwasusedtomakeformerlyworth-
lesslandarable.(Seaweedisanaturalsourceofpotash—it'sorganicfarming,beforeitwas
trendy.) Across the Milltown River estuary, the white Milltown House was Robert Mitch-
um'shomeforayearduringthefilmingof
Ryan's Daughter.
(Behindthatisascruffypitch
distance at the opposite end of the bay, where Fungie the dolphin frolics) and the Ring of
Kerry beyond that. Dingle Bay is so hidden that ships needed the Eask Tower to find its
mouth.
0.7 km:
At the roundabout, turn left over the bridge. The hardware-store building on
the right was a corn-grinding mill in the 18th century. Once across the bridge, you'll pass
a blue modern warehouse (on the right) that shelters a new local distillery. Not far beyond
that, you'll go by the junction (on the right) where you'll complete this loop trip later. The
gas station on your left is a handy spot to top up your tank (there aren't many gas options
beyond this point).
1.3 km:
The Milestone B&B is named for the stone pillar (
gallaun
in Gaelic) in its
front yard. This pillar may have been a prehistoric grave or a boundary marker between
two tribes. The stone goes down as far as it sticks up. The peninsula, literally an open-air
museum, is dotted with more than 2,000 such monuments dating from the Neolithic Age
(4000
B.C.
) through early-Christian times. Another stone pillar stands in the field across
the street (100 yards away, on the left), in the direction of the distant yellow manor house
of Lord Ventry. The pillar's function today: cow scratcher.
Lord Ventry, whose family came to Dingle as post-Cromwellian War landlords in 1666,
built this mansion in about 1750. Today it houses an all-Irish-language boarding school for
140 high-school girls.
As you drive past the Ventry estate, you'll pass palms, magnolias, and exotic flora,
which were introduced to Dingle by Lord Ventry. The Gulf Stream is the source of the
mild climate (it rarely snows here), which supports subtropical plants. Consequently, fuch-
sias—imported from Chile and spreading like weeds—line the roads all over the peninsula
and redden the countryside from June through September. More than 100 inches of rain a
year gives this area its “40 shades of green.”
