Slea Head Drive - Dingle Peninsula (Day 12)

I'm almost done blogging about our trip to Ireland & Scotland. I really appreciate the comments that have been left on these posts and the people who have told me in person that they're enjoying this virtual trip. This has taken a lot of time and it encourages me to finish posting. Thanks!

In the hotel we stayed at in Dingle, Ireland, there were windows in the roof (like there are at most houses in Ireland.) When I asked the lady at the front desk if there was a way to close the shade, she told me to look for the remote by the TV. Of course, I was looking for something like a TV remote... I was surprised to find this long pole like they use in the US in clothing stores! You could pull the blind closed or push it shut and also open and close the window with it.

This was probably my favorite day in Ireland. We drove around the Dingle Peninsula on the Slea Head Drive. It follws the coast and has incredible views. I posted a lot of photos today (23!) because there are just so many amazing things to see!

Here's a goat that was just "loose" by one of our stops.

And, a sheep... I was just amazed at how they can climb up steep slopes! Can you see the red spot on his back? The sheep in this area are branded with various colors of paint in various places on the sheep's body.

A beautiful view...

We stopped at the beach a few times. It was so beautiful!

This is Alex at Dunbeg Fort. It was built in the Iron Age. It was a ring fort and parts of it have fallen into the sea. It was amazing to see that this fort, built several THOUSAND of years ago, was put together without any kind of mortar... and it is still standing strong!

Some of the cliffs near the ring fort.

This is a beehive hut. These were built 4,000 years ago!!! They were used as family dwellings. Again, they were built without any type of mortar and are so solid!Most of the beehive huts no longer had a roof. (There were 4 or 5 huts here.)

I took this photo from inside of the one hut that did have its roof. The roof are just much larger stones.

This sculpture of Jesus was along the Slea Head Drive. We saw another very similar sculpture somewhere else in Ireland... I don't remember where, though.

Just another place I had to stop to take a photo.

Another stop at a beach.

Along the Drive, there were tall shrubs that had been planted. Mostly, there were fuschia, which I love. These shrubs were about 10 foot tall and I think one purpose was to warn you when you got too close to the edge of the road. :-) These roads were very narrow!

An old church and cemetery on the drive. Again, we were surprised that the tombstones we saw weren't very old!

Part of the drive goes up a place called Connors Pass. You drive almost into the clouds!

And the road is very narrow... and it was so cold and windy! I had trouble bracing myself to just take some of the photos.

Some sheep loose right next to the road.

This man and his donkey were way up near the top of the mountain. Like I said, it was very cold and windy up here. I wondered what this man's story was...

Some people got out and were climbing even higher. You can see we're almost to the clouds!

On the way back to Limerick, I stopped to take photos of these thatched roofs I'd seen on the way to Dingle. I saw a few houses that had thatched roofs, but this is actually a little store. I wonder what it looks like from the inside?