We had the ferry pre-booked for this morning at 8 am to go to Skellig Michael Island and climb to the top. However, we woke to another windy, rainy day and when we looked through our emails, found one from yesterday that had snuck past us telling us that all ferries to Skellig Michael were canceled for the day due to weather. Touring Skellig Michael consists of a puffin-filled 600 foot ascent to monastical ruins (and also the filming location for The Last Jedi) with uneven steps that would be slippery in the rain and treacherous in 30 mph winds, so canceling on a day like today was the right choice. Even the process of getting off the ferry and onto the island on a good day is described as “jumping off a trampoline onto an ice rink”. We were disappointed but we understand. Maybe next time.

By the time we found the email, we were already up and 90% ready to go, so we headed out to finish the rest of the Ring of Kerry drive and go on to Dingle. We stopped for a petrol station breakfast (nothing else was open yet but we got 2 made to order breakfast sandwiches) before visiting another ring fort, a sandy beach, and some castle ruins. That cold, gusty wind kept us from lingering long at any of them and before we knew it, we were in Dingle just in time to check into our B&B. We rested for a few minutes and then headed back out to drive the Slea Head Loop around the end of the Dingle peninsula.

This is where things got exciting. On our drive out of Dingle town, we spotted a donkey leashed to a dog walking down the sidewalk. We’re still not sure who was walking who, but we almost just turned around and headed back to the B&B with the understanding that the day had peaked. But we carried on and stopped down the road to check out some beehive huts, igloo stone huts that are scattered around Ireland. As we waited in line to pay for entry, we watched as the man inside the booth hoisted up a baby lamb to show the people in line in front of us through the window. Not sure if this was part of the routine transaction, we stepped up to the booth when it was our turn to pay and the man explained that this 5-day-old lamb had just been fed a bottle some minutes ago but had wandered into his booth since then to relieve itself. I didn’t quite catch the full explanation, but I did catch the words “fecking eejit”, which we learned on our first day of the trip to be a term of endearment reserved for one’s closest friends and loved ones. When he hoisted up the lamb to show us the guilty party, the lamb didn’t look at all sheepish. I’m still torn over whether it was cooler to give a lamb scritchy-scratchies behind the ear or see a donkey walking a dog (or a dog walking a donkey). The beehive huts and panoramic view were alright.

We stopped at a few more viewpoints to admire the coast before stopping at The Blasket Centre to learn about the Blasket Islanders, a group of people who lived on the remote Great Blasket Island for hundreds of years and survived the potato famine largely unscathed because so much of their diet came from the sea rather than from potatoes. They did not, however, survive the emigration that followed over the next 100 years. Eventually too many young people had left the community for it to support its aging population and the island was evacuated in the 1950’s. The museum facility itself was almost as interesting as the actual exhibit, with views back out to the coast and the Great Blasket Island. And importantly, it was warm and out of the cold wind. No sheep, donkeys, or dogs, though.

The last part of our loop took us to some more monastic ruins, the Gallarus Oratory, and more church ruins. The most interesting of these was the Gallarus Oratory, notable for its shape and how well preserved it is considering it was built 1,300 years ago. We watched a 10 minute film about it but in the dark, warm room out of the wind, I admit that I was having some difficulty staying awake and alert. Once we stepped back outside again into the driving wind and rain, I woke up pretty quickly. We lingered just long enough to snap a few pictures and check out the inside of the oratory before hightailing it back to the warm car and back to Dingle town for dinner.

We had planned to have dinner at a recommended seafood restaurant, but were told when we arrived that there would be a wait of over an hour, so we backtracked to Murphy’s pub next to our B&B for some comfort food (fisherman’s bake for me and beef & Guinness stew for Charles). Now we’re back in our B&B and debating whether we have the energy to venture back out again to enjoy the live music Dingle is known for.

Today’s Highlights

• Not being wind swept off of Skellig Michael or launched out of a ferry on a roiling sea
• A dog walking a donkey (or a donkey walking a dog)
• A 5-day-old lamb that was not house trained and completely unashamed
• Panoramic coastal views
• Stones stacked in a variety of ways to make a variety of different and very old structures
• Museums that provide relief from wind and rain
• Warming up in a pub with a pint of Murphy’s and some pub grub

Tomorrow’s Proposed Adventures

• Checking out the weekly market in Dingle
• Self-guided tour of the town
• A working sheep dog demonstration
• A boat tour around the peninsula to observe marine wildlife
• A second attempt to visit the recommended seafood restaurant
• Live music, possibly