After a fun night in Killarney, we woke up a little late, grabbed a quick donut and coffee from a nearby shop and headed out to explore the Ring of Kerry. You could probably spend more than a day exploring all of its side roads and vistas but we had the one day so decided to drive clockwise (opposite to the tour buses) and then back through the mountains on the way back.

This is basically the route we chose via Kenmare and Waterville:

We first drove through Killarney National Park where it was misty and scenic.

We stopped in the cute town of Kenmare where we ran into quite a few tour buses. We browsed the galleries and shops before continuing on our way toward Waterville. There were some great views when we pulled over at the viewpoints on the coast.

We stopped at a scenic beach for a little while and finally made it to Waterville around 1pm. We went into a great place for lunch right on the beach called Dooley’s. Despite the fact that many tour buses had also stopped there so we were a bit skeptical, they had some great food.

We spent another hour or so hiking the beach and my wife looked for shells before we started back toward Killarney. We could have continued further on the Ring of Kerry, but I didn’t want to drive back in the dark and everyone was pretty tired.

The drive back through the mountains was pretty interesting. The road was very narrow in places and I had to back up a couple of times to let cars pass, but we felt safe enough. There were nice views as well.

We made it safely back to Killarney around 5:00pm and had our last night there before setting out again the next morning toward Kilkenny.

Up Next: The Rock of Cashel and Kilkenny

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