The Blarney Stone

After leaving Waterford we headed south to our next B&B in Cork, which happens to be very close to Blarney.

Beechwood House B&B was very nice, and the host proudly showed us the soapstone fireplace which is original to the house and is over 100 years old.

I'm sure the breakfast was prepared by the lady of the house, but the host was a very friendly guy who cheerfully served us with a smile while whistling a happy tune.

The B&B was close enough to be able to walk to Blarney, past the town's old milk cart,

 where I admired more of the beautiful Irish flowers.

This is all we saw of Blarney Castle.  I really had no interest in kissing the Blarney Stone, and I have a feeling that Bob think I'm chatty enough, so we agreed it was not high enough on our priority list.  We went to the Blarney Woolen Mill instead, and I left a good bit of our American Dollars there.  Ha!

The Pub in Blarney was fun, and the seafood stew was wonderful, paired with Guinness, of course!

We were only in Cork one night befofe heading west to Kerry, and the Dingle Peninsula.  This was one of the wider roads we traveled on our way to Dingle, where the roads are narrow.  VERY narrow!

Ah, we left the cities behind, and we finally saw more of the beautiful, green Irish countryside.  

We enjoyed the sunny Irish weather.  It only rained the last day we were in Ireland, and the Irish people were very happy to believe we brought the sunshine with us.

Isn't it just beautiful!  Everywhere we looked it was so green and lush.  We loved the Dingle Peninsula.

Jaime likes calla lilies, and she'd like it here because they were growing wild everywhere.

Rock walls are everywhere too.  We were told that during winter farmers use their time to build rock walls, and some of the walls go straight up the steep hillsides.

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This was our home away from home in Kerry, with easy access to The Wild Atlantic Way and other scenic drives.

Our hostess was very sweet, and she was a good cook too!

This narrow road is a typical two lane road on The Dingle Peninsula.  The scenic road along the coastline is called The Wild Atlantic Way, and this section of road was on the Slea Head Drive.

We like to hike and our host at the B&B told us that the Lub na Cille, Dun Chaoin walk would be a good place to hike.  It's one of Ireland's National Looped Walks.

 The views were spectacular, and the trail was sort of spongy because we were hiking on peat.

More calla lilies, and that piece of land sticking out into the ocean is the first land that Charles Lindbergh saw when he reached Europe during his trans Atlantic flight.

Of course there were gates to pass through on the hike.  We have to keep the cows and sheep where they belong you know.

If you saw the movie "Ryan's Daughter" you might recognize this old building because it served as the schoolhouse during the filming.

We always enjoy having lunch along the trail.  

We didn't stay in Dingle town, but we did go to check things out there, and we were glad we stayed out in the beautiful Dingle countryside.

After spending a few days on the Dingle Peninsula we reluctantly moved on. 

Next stop:  Clare