Welcom to Oierland

You know you are in Oierland the minute you step on Ryan Air with the announcement “How are youse? Thanks for joinin us on our jaunt to Oierland. Tis a glorius day in Dubln and we alls hope yu enjoys yas flight”. With no seating allocation we were lucky that the flight was not full otherwise I could see the twins sitting no where near us…not that that would be a bad thing! It did make me wonder if you got on first if you could sit in the pilot seat? Ryan Air is Europe’s larges low cost airline, criticised by many for contributing to global warming and unfair practices. But for £30 return for all 5 of us, I ignored my ethical stance to spend the week travelling in a campervan around the isle.

Our main destination was the south west coast. We made our way first through Kilkenny then a quick stop at the Rock of Cashel. Over 200 feet high, this limestone outcrop rises out of the rolling hills, and perched on top are the imposing remains of a cathedral dating back to 12th Century. There is folklore that this is where St Patrick established the shamrock as the symbol of Ireland and used it to teach people about Christianity as he travelled around Ireland.

From here we drove on through Cork to Kinsale where we camped by the Atlantic Ocean. Little did we realise before we left that as it was low season and none of the camp sites were open. Luckily the campervan was pretty self sufficient except for the need to sneak into a public toilet ever now and again to empty the loo (NOT a pleasant tasks!).

Next stop was Killarney. Some say it is too touristy full of nothing but leprechaun tea towels, jaunting cars and the never ending stream of coach tours. I think I agree. Unfortunately those same tourist coaches all had one destination in mind. The Ring of Kerry. We knew that it was a popular route when we were told that we needed to drive in a clockwise direction otherwise we wouldn’t be able to get past the parade of coaches that travel the ring along the narrow road.

The road twists and turns along the coast but for us, it was somewhat disappointing. Despite the tourist brochures, the scenery was nice but not as dramatic as Scotland. Many of the tourist books say that Ireland is all about the people. I think this is another way of saying that the scenery is not that impressive and you can find better history elsewhere. While we were planning to stay the night here we decided to push on and drive into the night in the hope that our next stop Dingle Peninsular would be better.