Dingle Peninsula
17th August 2015
A distinctive feature of the area is the number of well preserved “beehive” type structures that survive.
Built with dry stone ( without mortar ) there really is quite an art to building them so that they shed the water and remain dry inside.
Of a slightly different style but using the same construction methods, the Gallarus Oratory appears to be an early Christian chapel built somewhere between the 6th and 12th centuries.
Dún Chaoin (Dunquin) pier serves the nearby Blasket Islands which were inhabited until 1953 when the inhabitants were forcibly evacuated to the mainland by the government.
We had hoped to visit the deserted village on Great Blasket but sadly the sea conditions were not suitable for a landing on the day we had planned.
Inis Tuaisceart (Inishtooskert) is the Northernmost of the Blasket Islands and is locally known as “The Sleeping Giant” due to the apparent profile of a face lying on it’s back when seen from the East.
Looking North from Clogher Head with the bay we were staying in to the right, Sybil Head juts out into the Atlantic.
Everywhere we went on Dingle there were wild flowers. I’m amazed that I don’t seem to have a picture of the Fushias we saw so many of on the roadside, but right down to the shore, everywhere was just carpeted in flowers.
The sunsets we saw here tended to be soft and mellow rather than dramatic but the softness seemed to compliment the rugged shape of the rocks on the shoreline.
