Cloghane (6km / 4mi)

We chickened out and skipped our walk across Brandon Mt. from Cloghane to Annascaul.  Instead we explored the tiny hamlet of Cloghane.  On our way down to the beach, we stopped in at a local store/bakery on main street to get picnic fixings.  Cloghane was very small, but it was worth an hour or two simply for the old church cemetery and beach.  That and the fact that there were very few tourists.  Our B&B hostess, Sherry, drove us to Annascaul in the early afternoon and THAT was an adventure.  I rode in the backseat of Sherry’s car right beside her cat, who was in a cage and had a cone around his head.  Sherry was dropping the cat off at the vet in Dingle because he had an eye injury.  That cat was NOT a happy camper on the drive, especially when Sherry whipped around steep cliffs at the speed of lightning.

Dingle to Dunquin (17km / 11.5mi)

This coastal walk to Dunquin was our favorite day of the trip!  Surprise surprise, the day began with rain but it also began with a taxi ride with Sean Moran, the 79 yr old owner of Moran Transportation and expert of all things Irish.  I LOVED this man and if I ever write a book he will be the inspiration for one of my favorite characters.  Mr. Moran felt sorry for us & dropped us off at Ventry beach (closer to our destination) and told us he’d be waiting for us at the end of our walk that day.  

The rain and wind along the beach made it difficult to take pictures or see very far, but it was so quiet and wildly beautiful.  Along the way we met fellow Dingle Way hikers from Ottawa Canada who were 1st time “inn-to-inn walkers” like us.  The poor guy had plantar fascia, so I stopped complaining about my shin splints when I saw he was determined to trek on.  We had lunch at a cafe near Dunbeg Fort and continued winding around the western coast of Ireland.  We saw the “Sleeping Giant” (Ceann Sibeal), an island that looks like a giant man in repose.

Dingle

Eric and I were in rough shape so we decided to skip hiking and spend the day in Dingle.  It turned out to be a rare full sun day, so all the locals were wearing shorts & sunbathing along the dock.  I bought pottery then shortly broke it in a grocery store because my gut reaction to tripping was to save the loaf of bread instead of the breakables.  Lunch was fish & chips from Reel Dingle Take Away (a little odd-tasting as they left skin on the fish before frying) and ice cream cones at Murphy’s.  Two things we noticed in Dingle:  most of the doors were painted bright colors AND the tourist shops had a lot of t-shirts with puffer birds wielding light sabers.  We never got a good answer for the doors, but we did learn that the new Star Wars franchise had filmed recently in the area and the locals were crazy fans at the moment.

Dingle is a music paradise, so of course we spent our evening listening to live music.