Despite the rain, today was a wonderful day that made up for yesterday. Walked for 32 km through beautiful forests, lakes, abbeys and castles. Started off at Ross Castle which sits on the edge of Lough Leane and built in the 15th century by an Irish Chieftain. It was the last stronghold in Munster to hold out against Cromwell. At the castle I noticed loads and loads of boats that are for the tourist trips across the lake. No one was using them today as the weather was too miserable. But seeing so many made me think of how many people’s livelihoods would have been impacted by the pandemic seeing all those tour boats sitting idle.

Everywhere around here one sees horse and carts called Jaunting cars. It has been a common form of transport in Ireland since the 1800’s. In Killarney they are still used for tourists. The name for the driver was a Jarvey.

Walking along the tracks that form a part of the long distance walking trail the Kerry Way – beautiful farmlands and forests and into the Killarney National Park. Next along was Muckross Abbey. Founded in the 1448 as a Franciscan abbey but there are stories that it may have been originally founded in 1340 and re-founded in 1448It was often subjected to raids by marauding groups and persecuted by Protestant forces and then the Cromwellian forces who finally drove the Franciscans from it in 1652 murdering many of the monks. It is still used as a burial ground today. Then followed the trail further on to Muckross House on the shores of the Muckross Lake. It was originally built in 1843 for wealthy Englishmen. It ended up being sold to wealthy Californians. In 1932 it was presented as a gift to the Irish Nation and became the first National Park in the Irish Free State (now Republic of Ireland). Whilst these old estates are beautiful and impressive there is something disgusting and decadent about them as you think of how one family could own such huge gardens and estates and look out at such a view from their mansions – how could you live like that without somehow thinking yourself above others or exploiting others which of course history is full of. Nice that this ended being gifted to the Irish nation in the end.

The walk continued through Killarney National Park and the Reinadinna wood. An area preserving some of the native forests of Ireland including the largest stand of native Yew in Western Europe. The area also contains the native endangered red deer although unfortunately I didn’t see any of them. I only saw fallow deer. There are also introduced sika deer that they’ve had to keep out of the wood with fences as they eat the young regenerating trees.

I then kept walking for kilometres through forests. I stopped on a moss covered rock overlooking the lake to have my picnic lunch. This is how I like to travel. And after yesterday I realised it’s not just about being cheap – but by walking and doing my own thing I got to see animals like deer grazing, experience views, smell beautiful smells, hear birds, ‘bathe in the forest’, and my little picnic lunch sitting amongst that beautiful nature was far better than any restaurant.

At the very end of the walk was a little cottage tea room at Dinis Cottage where I got myself a coffee and a scone – mainly because I wanted an excuse to sit somewhere warm and dry for a little bit before heading back. But it was lovely. I noticed this a few times on the trip but it really hit me in this cafe – in the past when travelling you’d sit at a table with travellers and in no time at all you’d be swapping tales and tips and maybe even hooking up to share a transport or whatever. Now, when you sit down people glare at you or ignore you and look down into their phones. I guess with all the info on your phone now no one needs to connect with other travellers. Everyone in the cafe was just sitting there looking at their phones. The world is certainly changing…

Just past the cottage was the Meeting of waters where the three lakes of Killarney all drain into each other. Then I headed back home. By the time I was nearing Killarney again I had already walked 31 km. Now my legs were starting to feel it. But once you start it’s hard to stop and you don’t want to miss out whilst you’re there. So I took some more turns to look at other things on the way back including Killarney House and gardens, another decadent monument to the divide between rich and poor. As I approached the hotel I was close to 33km ( my record for one day!) and my legs were starting to feel like my muscles were breaking down and I wouldn’t be able to walk any further. I limped into my hotel room and lowered myself into the bath to recover. I rested for a couple of hours, determined to get out again to make it a to a free concert at the old church of traditional Irish music. That was well worth it – the music was beautiful and the setting of the old church with stained glass windows was lovely. I thought about stopping in at a pub but decided against it as it was Saturday night and getting pretty rowdy and I was guessing it could get pretty rough as suddenly every pub had three security guards at the door. Besides my legs needed to rest!