Day 12 – St. Mary’s Cathedral, Torc Waterfall, Moll’s Gap, Kenmare, Ladies’ View, Muckross House & Gardens, Ross Castle
We started out early wandering around Killarney hoping to get coffee and some sort of sweet treats! We struck out on the sweet treats since nothing seemed to be open at 8:30 when we were wandering the streets… so we made our way to St. Mary’s Cathedral instead. It’s a more modern cathedral, so it looks new-ish inside, but still looks pretty cool overall.
By this time it was past 9 AM so we were able to find some coffee shops that were just now opening and managed to come away with some semi-ok mocha’s. They weren’t anything special but they were warm as it had started to sprinkle. I also got an eclair; it was just okay.
After a quick re-group at the townhouse we were out on the road heading towards Kenmare. Our first stop along the way was Torc Waterfall. It rained slightly but we still got some cool shots. I brought the tripod this time so we could get a steady shot of all of us in front of the waterfall as last time the pictures all turned out pretty bad. We also declined a jaunting car trip at this stop.
The next place along the way was Moll’s Gap which is a scenic overlook of some skinny roads you have to come up to get to Kenmare. It was good for a bathroom stop.
We made our way in to Kenmare and were off to find some pastries that we had gotten last time we were here. We were searching for a shortbread cookie with chocolate on the end but instead wound up with the best chocolate muffin ever. I devoured it. (We got a second one, later, of which I also devoured in a chocolate frenzy ignoring my pregnant wife who also wanted some. Big OOPS!) We had lunch in a pub type place (and I also got a Guinness) then we wandered around Kenmare a bit more. It was cool to walk past our previous B&B and several pubs I had had a Guinness in 1.5 years before. After that we were back on the road headed back toward Killarney.
We pulled off at a scenic overlook near Ladies’ View for some quick pics and were back on our way. Next up was Muckross House & Gardens.
The gardens are quite large and extensive and very relaxing to walk around. We spent a good amount of time here and walked about a mile and a half in total. We also tried to recreate a picture of me jumping off a wall with limited success.
I then wanted to head back to the townhouse to then walk through Killarney National Park to get to Ross Castle but somehow we got on the subject of Ross Castle and the mentioning of a road to Ross Castle – instead of walking 2+ miles through the park – won out.
Ross Castle is similar in shape and style to castles we have seen in the past such as: Newtown Castle, Dysert O Dea Castle, Aughnanure Castle, but the only way to view the inside or Ross Castle is through a paid guided tour (and pictures are not allowed). On our previous trip we skipped the tour but this time I decided to go it alone while Amber and Kathy walked around the grounds and then eventually waited in the car. I think I like castles slightly more ruined and without any furniture or decoration; there’s something about the raw stone braving the elements for ages that appeals to me.
We finished the day off at the townhouse eating some leftover spaghetti and catching up on blogs, email, and Facebook.
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- St. Mary’s Cathedral
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- Torc Waterfall
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- Moll’s Gap
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- Truer Words Could Not Be Spoken
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- Ladies’ View
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- Muckross House
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- View from Muckross House
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- Ross Castle
