Ireland Day 8

Our hotels were very nice, with breakfast included at each place.  We were so in love with the eggs and the milk.  All of it fresh and from animals pastured outside where they are supposed to live.  The eggs were orange yolked and the milk creamy and satisfying.  It's a little scary that the way the US produces food is illegal in almost every other country, particularly in Europe.  We loved going to the markets and even gas stations and getting grass fed milk as a matter of course.  We will miss this when we go home, but are excited that baby and I are getting some awesome nutrition on our travels!

Today we headed to the Dingle Peninsula, which had a bunch of other interesting landmarks and sites to explore.  We began our drive with a stop at the gas station to get delicious milk to add to the growing number of cartons on the backseat floor!  I think there are something like 12 now.

The Dingle Peninsula is the westernmost peninsula of Ireland, which puts it out in the ocean further than anywhere else in Europe.  There are islands out further, including the Skellig Islands off the Iveragh Peninsula and the Blasket Islands off the Dingle, but we were out there!

As always these ruins and points of interest were on private properties, and the owners were a little more enterprising here, with little stands to pay for your tickets to explore.  First up were these Beehive huts found in what is called a Cashel, or Ring Fort.  These particular huts had been reconstructed, I imagine for tourism, but they were built using no mortar, and they get their shape from the style of building, each successive row of stones placed slightly more towards the middle, slanted down to keep rain and wind out.  Astounding.

We were wondering if they were a small people, or if they just always had to duck to get into their homes!

Called a ring fort because the huts and outbuildings were enclosed by a stone wall.  It is likely that only one family lived in each fort.

It was very chilly right there off the ocean with the wind and cooler temperatures.  It would have been an austere life.

This stone is original to the fort, indicating the builders were early Christians.

You can see the Blasket Islands in the distance if you look carefully!

We stopped here at Slea Head Beach, and went down and played in the sand, trying to avoid the freezing cold water eddying and flowing.

We took a trail that went up above the beach and braved the strong winds to go up and up and out onto the tip of Dunmore Head 

Gorgeous views!

It was VERY windy out here, but we found a spot to perch for a bit.  Then realized we were on the westernmost tip!

We consulted Google Maps to verify, and there we are on the tip of the peninsula.

When we zoomed out, it shows us WAAAY out there on the westernmost tip of IRELAND, and therefore Europe.

We could barely keep our eyes open to take this picture the wind was blowing so hard, and luckily it does not show how badly our noses were running!!

At the top of the hill back a ways from the tip is an Ogham Stone.  They are examples of Irelands earliest forms of writing.  They have stroke marks made across and along a line, usually a corner of the rock, and were in use for around 500 years around the 4th century AD.

We resumed our drive around, viewing stunning vistas and a bit of sun, stopping at lookout points.

You can see the terraced and walled hills where farmers here in the 1800s would have planted and harvested potatoes year after year, going almost all the way up to the top of the hills.  Those crops would have just rotted in the ground as people had to leave during the potato famine.

Dingle has an ancient monastic site dating from the 6th century, which not much is known about. 

The ruins include multiple cross inscribed slabs, including this one, which also has "DNE" carved onto it, which is an abbreviation for Domine, the Latin for "O Lord".  Less obvious were the ruins of 42 graves, but the remnants of their little huts were still there, as well as the wall around the perimeter.

The Gallarus Oratory was next.  It resembles an inverted boat, and is completely original, untouched, not rebuilt.  Which means it was well built in the first place, although it is sagging in the middle a bit.  Perfectly understandable after 13 or 14 centuries!!  

A tiny little building...we aren't sure if it was for the clergy alone, or if people would have gathered there to worship.

It seems that lacking very many other options, this would have been an absolutely beautifully made building.

Last on our tour was Kilmalkedar Church, dating from the mid 12th century or so.  It was apparently rebuilt then, and original structures date from around 630 AD.  This means that all over the grounds are an eclectic mix of ancient and more 'modern' elements.

There is some beautiful stone work utilizing chevrons and rounded arches, which was from the Romanesque influence rising at the time.

Around the church itself are a multitude of graves, some so ancient all there is is a stone, some more modern...some so much so that the writing inscribed is English!

The grounds also have an Ogham Stone, on which you can see the weathered slash marks on the edges.  We didn't get a picture of it, but there is also a sundial on the grounds, as well as a large stone cross.