Food Glorious Food

Sheila writes...Food glorious food isn't that how the song goes? Although I am thinking that Lionel Bart did not have Dingle in mind when he created that song.

But he should have because Dingle annually hosts one of Ireland's biggest food festival and 2017 sees the 10th anniversary of the festival.

Over 50 food stalls line the streets offering samples from local producers, restaurants and growers.

One of the central key concepts is the Food Trail. The idea is  that a visitor buys a book of ten tickets for €20 which you exchange at various stalls for a sample of their food or drinks. There is an amazing variety of drink choices all involving either d
Dingle Gin, Dingle Vodka or Dingle Whiskey.

There is also street entertainment, restaurants offering tasting menus and cookery demonstrations.

We arrived with friends into the centre of Dingle about 2pm and once himself had managed to park the car... not an easy task in Dingle on a busy day, we set off on our food trail.

Beginning with Beef stew at the Marina Inn,  Scallop with black pudding, delicious Macroons and on to Fish and Chips from Anchor Down. Relentlessly onward to Random Restaurant for the most amazing sticky toffee pudding before stopping off at Holden Handbags for wine tastings before settling ourselves into Benners hotel for a recover session over wine and Guinness.

While we wait for Peter to pick up the car we took refuge at McCarthy bar's catching up with friends.

A glorious day, rain held off and unsurprisingly by the end of the evening we just wanted to chill out in front of the fire and relax.

Sunday morning and we decided to head back into the mayhem and fun to try more food treats. This time it was a taco from the Dingle Cookery School consisting of pickled onion and shredded beef from cattle reared on salted grass. This is amazing, and the salted grass beef project is the brain child of students from Tralee college. They got funding for their project from the Credit Union and began rearing the cattle on grass salted by the sea and found that it produced a distinctive flavour. Now many of the local restaurants are using their beef.

Visiting Dingle would not be complete without popping into the local bookshop to see Mike and Camilla and find that there's a book launch of Trevis Gleason's Dingle Dinner cookbook. Perfect timing.

A return to Ballyferriter around the Slea Head drive is a treat, as was dinner with friends on Sunday evening.

And so our plans head off to Kerry County Council

Wednesday 13^th September is an important day in the life of Carrigeen. 

It is the day we lodge our renovation plans with Kerry County Council. Yes, that’s right, we have put ourselves at the mercy of a planner in West Kerry. We’ll know in about 3 months where her thoughts are about our plans.

As they say on TV programmes, it’s all been a bit of a journey. We began, before Christmas, thinking about a few odd jobs that needed to be done. A little bit of this, a little bit of that, but when we (eventually) got the quotes for those “small jobs” and picked ourselves up off the floor we thought, “ah sure we might as well go for the full job” and build ourselves a mini Knoll.

Back in February we met with a couple of architects, talked through our plans and decided to work with David Moriarty.  We met again at Easter to begin the process of the design and here we are five months later with a design we love and think is going to be fantastic.

What have we planned you might ask? 

For those of you who have been will know the best views  are from the upstairs, albeit mostly bending down under the eves. We've decided to switch the house around and move our living room upstairs together with the kitchen and our bedroom. Downstairs will be guest bedrooms, utility room, bathroom, the control room and storage. 

This is the floor plan with the ground floor on the left and upstairs on the right. The front entrance is at the top left corner of the house and you'll enter straight into a large hallway. You'll see two large bedrooms which will be yours if you visit (again) a study, bathroom and other rooms.

The right hand plan is upstairs and you'll see a large living room like we have now, a kitchen off that, our bedroom further on down and stop the clocks, a terrace. We are wondering if we'll get a chance to seat out on that terrace more than 10 times a year, without a fleece.😄

This is a virtual 3D model of the house which gives you a sense of what we are asking for. It will be interesting to see if this lights the fire in a good or bad with the planner in West Kerry.

Potentially an exciting time.

We'll keep you posted on developments and no doubt the ups and downs of the planning process.

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And so like all good things.....

We've finished up our six week holiday here on the Dingle peninsula in  West Kerry and what an absolute joy it has been.
Whilst we are both heading back to exciting projects it is hard not to feel oh.... if only.

Whilst it might not be the best time of the year to give a sense of what a permanent life here would be like - best weather, lots to do, many people around to meet with - we were able to make that decision. The winter months will be different and when it rains it is challenging to find enough to keep busy.

And we were even able to test the Irish health system when I damaged my knee. Needing an MRI scan I got that within a week.  The knee has a tear in the cartilage and the usual wear and tear. So lots of exercises and weight loss should put off the need for surgery. All in all the service was excellent albeit it that I either had to pay for it (200Euros for MRI) or it was all free because of my E111 card.

Himself is back catching the 8.02 from BJ into town with all the delays and joys of that whilst I am "working from home in Dublin". Before we know it we'll be back into the swing of London life and enjoying it.

Slan Abhaile as they say in West Kerry

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Our local museums

We are blessed with two museums within a mile of the house thanks to the OPW. That's the Office of Public Works  to those who don't know.

This week is Irish Heritage Week, celebrating the history and culture of Ireland and as such he OPW have made all museums free entry.

So being the non sunshine day that it was we decided to do a little tour of our local museums. First up was the brilliant and beautiful Blasket Centre. This building is IMHO a joy and settles into the landscape perfectly. With a nod to the islands it commentates and celebrates as it looks out to them.

Having done a few trips to the Great Blasket this summer it was a timely visit as we learnt so much more about the people, the landscape, their lives and challenges. One can only stand back in admiration at these people.

What we did discover is that the islanders, not having a bull on the island, had to bring the cows across to the mainland on the rowing boats to be inseminated!

And being the day that it was the OPW had laid on some traditional Irish music as well as an Irish dancer. The music flowed through the museum and was a beautiful accompaniment to exhibition.

As is the way in Ireland the girl behind the till selling the tickets popped out for a moment to join the musicians and sing a song. And a punter joined the Irish dancer for a few minutes on the floor. He is the one with ordinary shoes!

We then headed back to the museum in Ballyferriter village. We've passed this museum on many occasions and even popped into the bookshop but never thought of venturing into the exhibition itself. I think that this could be described as a bit of a gem of a place, absolutely fascinating and although we are of course biased we thought it had a lot to offer.

And to the races, The Dingle Races that is

The Dingle Races is quite a big feature on the local calendar, that has been running for many years. Best described as the biggest horse and pony races in Ireland, which adheres to very different rules then horse racing you might experience on tracks like Kempton or Ascot.

Ourselves and two friends headed off to the races with the fifth in the party heading to Gallarus for drawing and soaking up the landscape.

We had seen signs for park and ride service and a bus service from the centre of town so were debating whether to avail of one of these options to avoid traffic but as we are becoming "natives" we decided it drive up to the venue.
And as is the way in Dingle we were able to drive straight in the middle of the race course, park up and walk over to the parade ring, all in about 5 minutes.

Often the word unique is used to described events and this definitely was unique and different. It is a three day event, with a variety of races including a ladies only and a donkey derby. There was also an impressive number of young boys and girls as jockeys, most we estimated under 10. After all this is where Jack Kennedy began his career at 9 years of age and he is now winning races in both Ireland and England, most recently at the Cheltenham festival.

One of the best moment was hearing the commentator say "and it's Pablo Escobar on the inside, just ahead of Bubba Watson"

And we had a winner, sheila bet on one horse called Best Times are Ahead.
Chosen for it's beauty and from my wide experiences of viewing horses.

Or maybe not, maybe chosen on the name and that I was standing beside the bookies stand showing a nice price for this horse.


The number 7 raced home to provide a eighteen euro profit. All spent on beverages, mainly double whiskies.
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An average evening in the local pub

By now you've probably guessed that my favourite pub in Ballyferriter is Murphy's or Tigh Ui Mhurch to give it the correct name. Tigh is the name for house and Mhurch well you can guess the rest.

Every Sunday and Tuesday evening they have a session of traditional Irish music whereas on Thursday and Sunday afternoon its more, well not traditional Irish.

On a recent Sunday evening we finished our dinner with friends who were staying and headed off down for the session. Led by "The Frenchies" this was a session we were very much looking forward to.
The tale goes that several decades ago a French Breton family,, with a love of music, came to Ballyferriter and the young girl fell in love with a local musician. They married and settled here and began playing music twice a week in Murphys. As the years went by their children began to join in and now it's a large gang of them playing.

Brilliantly talented not only do people stream in numbers to hear them, they also attracted a number of locals who can belt out a tune themselves.

This is the band, with Mum, Dad, grandfather and children.

English chap did a bit of Gilbert and Sullivan

And if you thought spoons were just for drinking soup with... think again.

And they even have their own groupies.

The lady second from the left got up and did a couple of jigs, finishing each off with a high kick - brilliant.




Super evening, a must do on when you visit Ballyferriter.

A day on the Dingle Peninsula

Another weekend and another round of visitors, more laughs, drives around the Dingle peninsula and this time we did the Conor Pass and over to Brandon Cove - a treat.

The Conor Pass is the  highest mountain pass in Ireland and provides the most dramatic and scenic way of entering or leaving Dingle. This narrow, twisting road runs between the town of Dingle and Kilmore Cross on the north side of the peninsula. Himself was driving today.. I did have a good excuse as I have injured my knee stopping me from driving :)

Don't be deceived by all the short wearing it was a bit of a chilly day, even in August. I know it happens occasionally in Dingle.

The view is impressive and if you are going to take this tour we'd advise doing the journey out from Dingle and it's up to the drivers coming into Dingle to pull over - in a few parts this is a single track road with a sheer drop down the mountain - just saying.

Brandon Cove and Bay is one of Ireland's best known surfing locations, we were not surfing. It is also known as the place that St Brendan set off from to discover America. I know he is suppose to have started this journey from many places, a bit like commuters from Beckenham on a Monday morning but we're believing this fairy tale.

This is a headland that's definitely worth a visit, along the way there are beautiful beaches, pubs and Brandon Harbour is worth a trip.

We made our way back towards Dingle, along the bottom of the coastline, avoiding the route back over the Conor Pass and had lunch in the South Pole Inn in Annascaul.

I know who'd have guessed, the South Pole Inn on the Dingle Peninsula. But there is logic in the madness... this is the home of Tom Crean, most or "only" famous as an Irish seaman and Antarctic explorer who was awarded the Albert Medal.

Tom Crean was a member of three major expeditions to Antarctica during what is known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, including Captain Scott's 1911–13 Terra Nova Expedition. This saw the race to reach the South Pole lost to Roald Amundsen and ended in the deaths of Scott and his polar party. During this expedition, Crean's 35 statute miles (56 km) solo walk across the Ross Ice Shelf to save the life of Edward Evans led to him receiving the Albert Medal for Lifesaving.

One surprising discovery was a photo of Endurance, a boat that is on display in Dulwich College and a display that I had only seen a few weeks previously during an author visit.

The pub is definitely worth a stop, the memorabilia is excellent, the food superb or at least the seafood chowder was and amazingly they had a choice of wines! Hey what more could you ask for.

When is a Fruitcake not a fruitcake...

Sometimes days come along when you laugh from one day to the next and a recent weekend with some "old" friends was one of those. The laughs began late on the Thursday evening, their arrival being slightly delayed by Ryanair and continued throughout the weekend.

In preparation for the visit of these friends himself had been cooking and baking. Cooking a Ballyferriter Bourguignon, making homemade sausage rolls & cooking breaded chicken for our Blasket Island picnic and baking

a fruitcake.

The weather on Friday morning meant the trip around the Slea Head drive was shrouded in fog and mist resulting in a somewhat different view that we'd be talking about. But it is the west of Ireland after all and you cannot plan on the weather behaving itself. This meant we had lots of time to check out the pubs of Dingle before our meal and music.

Into Dingle we headed for a first stop at Kennedy's for their regular Friday evening "Rush Hour Jazz". It is the most amazing pub and a must try for anyone visiting Dingle, however it was slightly packed on this Friday evening which meant we were standing in the corridor to the toilets. A space that got busier as the hour went on = the weak bladders of Dingle contributing to the flow so to speak.

But rest assured there were other choices, and we popped across the road to a newly reopened pub called McCarthy's. I am a little lost for words on this one, but will just say it was all a little weird. By now we were due for our dinner reservation at Ashe's restaurant. Warmly greeted by the owner all I can say about the meal was WOW. Expensive but amazing. The starters was fantastic and the main courses brilliant and everyone had super food - can't ask for more than that. http://www.ashesbar.ie/

We finished up in enough time to pop into The Mighty Session, yup another Dingle pub, for brilliant music from Niamh Barry and Meabh Begley. Niamh plays the fiddle and Meabh plays the accordion. Without reading from any music they played for over two hours, communicating by just the nod of a head or eye contact. https://www.facebook.com/The-Mighty-Session-453152138078290/

Saturday saw the sunshine out which was just as well as we had booked to take the ferry to the Blasket Islands. If you've never heard or know about the Blaskets it is hard to describe and the guests were setting off on this trip with just a little wonder as to why....

And we are pleased to say that the island didn't let us down.  A brilliant trip, tour of the old village and a picnic on the beach.

The picnic, was a success, the sausage rolls delicious, the breaded chicken scummy and the salad excellent. Then we got ready to round off the picnic with rose and fruitcake.
The fruitcake was perfectly moist although maybe slightly lacking in fruit.
As one friend said when replying to Peter's comment "oh it could do with more fruit", "is it suppose to be a fruitcake".

We managed to fit in a visit to Gallarus Oratory - a 6th Century building that was more impressive than it might sounds.

We met some friends as well...

And then we saw Fungie the dolphin

When we say to friends “oh we are heading to Dingle for a holiday/weekend” no one yet has said “oh are you going dolphin watching”.

This is understandable although somewhat surprising as Fungie, the Dingle Dolphin has been swimming in the bay for over 30 years & has his very own Wikipedia entry.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fungie

He, yes, it is a he, is a common bottlenose dolphin who is known to live in very close contact with humans in Dingle. According to locals he was first seen in the harbour in 1983, and continues to seek out human contact over thirty years later. Dolphins have been known to live to 48 years of age. Fungie is a male fully grown bottlenose dolphin and he is named after the fisherman who first spotted him, Fungus.

Now at 34 years of age, Dingle tourism has about another 5/10 years before they need to find a replacement. And find a replacement for him they must. Fungie has almost single handily driven the tourism of Dingle for over 30 years. The other drivers of tourism to Dingle are both The Quiet Man and Ryan's Daughter.  (Both films were shot locally)

It was with some scepticism that we decided to book on the trip. It all seemed very touristy and was Fungie really there, we asked.

The key we discovered was to take a four and half year old and a one and half year old so that the anticipation and excitement is then contagious.

Booking ourselves onto the 10.30 ferry - essential to book with two small children in tow - we headed out to the Dingle Bay. Surrounded by tourist, English, French, German it was an entertaining trip in itself.
We were one of three boats chasing down Fungie. Being the friendly dolphin that he is we were only about 20 minutes out of the harbour when he first bounded up beside out boat.
And then it was a matter of just keeping an eye out for his appearances, of which there were many and which were accompanied by hugely enjoyable screams of many young children. 

Rounded off with a super fish and chip lunch in Anchor Down this was a brilliant Saturday.

It capped off a fantastic family weekend which included much ball playing in the garden, building sandcastles on the beach and a fun early evening meal in Murphy's pub in Ballyferriter with friends.
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Is there a choice of white wine I ask?

Sheila writes...

Those of you who know me know I like a glass of wine, ideally a white wine. We’ve been lucky enough to find a house in Ballyferriter that is within walking distance of 3 pubs plus a hotel. Although if a longer walk is required, we can walk right by these pubs and head out the road for 2kms and find another pub. What joy.

These are my stories of trying to have a glass of nice white wine in our local pubs.

Feile na Bailtaine is the May bank holiday festival and the area is hopping with events showcasing all things cultural. We have scheduled a weekend visit to the house to go to as many events as we could, being the cultural vultures that we are. 

One of the events was taking place in the pub that’s 2km away from our house. We thought grand, we can walk there and back, have a couple of glasses of wine, listen to some music and enjoy ourselves.

We walk in and himself says to me “what would you like to drink?” I know you are saying why ask but sure there’s always the chance I might say bitter lemon. I reply saying a white wine, a phrase met with a reply from behind the bar “oh we’ve no wine”. Talk about stopping us in our tracks, oh he continues, "we’ve not had our delivery and since it’s now 9pm we are unlikely to get it". But it is a Friday of a bank holiday, there’s a festival on and you are holding one of the key events, why leave your delivery until the last minute… But I don't say all that, I say a vodka & tonic please.

Roll forward to the summer and we decide to pull ourselves away from our favourite pub in the village and check out the other two.

Pub A

In we go, up to the bar behind which are the two owners plus a young guy. And the conversation with the young guy goes like this…

Him “What can I get you”?
Me: “Do you have white wine”?
Him “Yes”
Me after a second or two “Is there a choice?”
Him “Yes”
Me after a further second or two “...and the choice is…”?
Him “Oh right, umm, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio and Chardonnay”
Me “Grand, where’s the SB from”?
Him “No idea”
Me: “Any chance you could find out”?
Him “Oh right, sure… (a moment later) France”
Me “Ok I’ll have a glass of that then, thanks”

And I can tell you now that wine was never from France.

Pub B

Furthest pub away from us by about 10yds and one that advertised food. We thought we better try the food before we take anyone there for a meal. In we pop and they’d have just announced a new menu along the lines of:

Ø  Soup of the day

Ø  Burger of the day

Ø  Fish of the day

Ø  Salad of the day

On the specials board there is an option of fish cakes, which there always is and that's our choice. We asked to see the wine list. "Oh" says he, "there’s no wine list, we only have the one." "Right" says us, "what’s that? "A Sauvignon Blanc from Chile." Sigh, but after some deliberation we decide to go for it.
Fishcakes passable

Wine drinkable 

Overall = 5/10

and we're fairly sure that none of you will be going there for food or wine, maybe a pint and music.

Pub C

This is the place that’s making an effort in all senses of the word to provide good food and good service. Someone says hello to you when you walk in, they even make conversation with you.  

There are specials of the day that change and there is a decent choice on the main menu. They have a children’s menu and music most days. But most of all they have a wine list with a CHOICE OF WINES.

This unsurprisingly has become our favourite spot although we've not yet tried the hotel bar.  How hard can it be to have a small selection of wines on offer and print a wine list, clearly for some of the pubs in West Kerry that’s a little step too far.

Front Yard Water Feature

As we walked up the garden path on our arrival 10 days ago we were greeted by a trickle, I say trickle more like a steady stream of water coming down to meet us. This I assure you was not a planned stream.

We know a plumber - always a handy phrase to be able to say and I got straight on the phone to Martin. He is a lovely man, amazingly big hands - not sure what that says about either him or me.

A few days later he turns up to access the situation and say oh right it's a bigger leak than I thought. Let me see if I can locate the stopcock.
I will save you from the saga but to say that 10 days later we still don't know where our stopcock is and a diviner and metal detector has been used.
That's not to say we didn't find A stopcock, but just not ours. That stopcock is sitting proudly in the middle of our garden and according to Martin is probably "belongs to some cute farmer".

A builder is needed to dig up the pathway and that job is remarkably quick, for Kerry time that is. and we find the source of the leak.

More interestingly we discover that we have very old piping which is not ideal. And to make the situation worse the plumbers do not have any fittings to use on this old piping fitting.

A temporary job is done to stop the leak and we now await the necessary part that needs to come from Dublin = the joys of rural living.

The sage continues but hopefully not for too much longer but it goes a long way to establishing our main entrance as the door into the sun lounge.
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And there goes a week - What have we been doing… well it turns out not a lot but enough.

Sunday began as a bright sunny day and since we needed to be at Kerry International Airport for 3pm we decided to pack a picnic, chairs etc and head to Inch beach. Inch beach so called because it a 3 miles long is one of the most fantastic beaches not only in Ireland but up there in the world.

It’s one of those beaches where you can drive onto, park up, get out the picnic and enjoy the views. 

Himself preparing for flight to London

It’s not the first time we’d done this, about 25 years ago when holidaying in this part of Ireland we did just that, only for the car to get stuck in the sand. Despite it being a brit reg car a couple of really nice lads came along and helped get the car out of the sand.

It was therefore with extreme caution and trepidation that we drove onto the beach again. We found a lovely spot and settle down for a couple of hours before heading for the airport.

Having drop himself off for the London flight I drove back to the golf club and squeezed in a quick round of 9 holes.

Monday and Tuesday went in a whirlwind of work as we prepared to finish up everything in time for our holidays. 

On Wednesday Peter was flying back into KIA which enables me to set myself up for a game of tennis in Tralee (the nearby town to the airport) just before his flight arrived.

The view from the viewing gallery... sorry car park at Kerry airport as himself hops down the stairway to freedom in Europe.

A couple of well-known Irish musicians were doing a gig in the Dingle Brewing Co = perfect scenario we felt so we headed off to that with some friends on Friday evening. 

Absolutely brilliant gig, Liam O Maonlai is the lead singer of the Hothouse Flowers and can play the piano, tin whistle and the bowran. 

Cormac Begley is one of the best players of bass, baritone, treble and piccolo concertina and has to be heard to be believed. Together they created brilliant music. Cormac is from a long line of musicians all who live locally.

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First day working from home….albeit Ballyferriter

It’s a small house so two of us settling down to “work from home” was always going to be tricky. It’s hard enough in Beckenham where we have some to make our own but in the wee teach that is Carrigeen it was harder. Not that himself is overly bother, I however have lost the patience to work at close quarters with others and am not inclined to rebuild that strength or skill.

Which meant that by mid-afternoon I was wandering around saying “we are here for 7 weeks so let’s set me up somewhere semi-permanent” And before you know it there was a little shifting of furniture around. 

The smallest room in the house that we’d converted into a study and dumping… sorry storage area had two desks in it.  

The obvious course of action was to move one of the desks to another part of the house and set me up there. Himself had already settled into the big desk and working nicely so the little red desk was mine. 

So before long we had reorganised the study into what now looks like a proper work area with it's very own armchair and we have the ability to print documents. Whilst I am upstairs on the landing with my own desk and am amazing view.

By 5pm himself is finished his days work and if working in London would normally be aiming to

catch the 5.15pm or 5.30pm out of Victoria and heading home. Whereas he finishes up at 5pm and oh look he is home by 5pm.  Into the car we hop and down off to the local beach for a walk albeit a little wrapped up. A glorious walk of an hour along the beach was refreshing for the soul as much as for the body.

It was a busy beach as you can see, although we did spot one other living creature on it, some sort of crow like bird. Not 100% sure what this is and we are thinking we might need to brush up on our ornithologist skills if we are going to be doing this every evening.
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521 miles and 11 hours of driving we arrive

We decided to drive to Ballyferriter for this holiday. Many reasons, remind ourselves how long it was, going for 7 weeks one needs a lot of stuff and we had some nice memorable items from my Mum's flat that we wanted to keep as well as a couple pieces of furniture that would come in handy. Therefore taking the car made sense and once we gathered all the items together we thought oh la la that's not all going to fit in the car and we bought a roof box.

The roof box purchase was a little bit of a saga, these things always are when you purchase it from eBay, the seller is Mick's Garage in Ireland and they tell you they are out of stock when you make the purchase. But sure not to worry they'll get it too you.  We waited and waited and they were extremely nice keeping us informed and we waited. Then as we leave for a long weekend in Ireland they announce it will be delivered tomorrow. No problem we thought there's no way the delivery driver will leave a roof box on our front drive when we are not home.

To be fair he didn't leave it on our front drive but with our neighbours across the road. I knew this because Soon Mui texted me to say they've taken in a delivery for us. Aagghh I say oh dear that was not meant to happen and can you hold that huge enormous box in your hall way until we are back in 4 days.... The lovely people that they are they said yes. When chatting with her afterwards turns out the driver had knocked on her door and asked could he leave the box with her and she thinking it was just a normal box said sure of course. It was only when she saw him dragging the large box up the drive did she think, umm maybe I should have said no.

Monday morning, we'd stayed over until the Monday so we could go to the Mens final at Wimbledon. Monday at 6am we hit the road and before we know it we are zipping along the start of the M40. In fact about an hour and ten minutes after setting off. And the rest of the journey is just as smooth and before we know it we are on Anglesey with a few hours to spare.

Anglesey is a place that one would normally zip through, it is Wales after all. But with 2 hours to spare and a coast road we thought lets explore. The weather was fantastic and beaches busy... not.

It made for a lovely way to arrive at Holyhead for the boat but all the more difficult to cope with a busy boat with many noisy screaming kids who were clearly hyper after a holiday.

Arrival in Dublin at 7.30pm and into the flat by 8pm.

An early start the following morning and off we headed to Ballyferriter. And 521 miles later and 11 hours of driving we were opening the gates, parking up and unloading the car.
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A short weekend in Ballyferriter

And we buy a PowerCaddy

We’d spent three weekends at home which was unusual and had a fourth free so we thought, let’s check out the flights to Kerry International Airport and if they are reasonable sure why don’t we head over there.

The result is that on a lovely sunny day we are zipping across the Dingle peninsula. And before we know ourselves we are in Garvey’s supermarket stocking up for the weekend.

On Friday we decided to make a day trip to Tralee. Tralee is a large county town, pop about 23,000, and has seen better days. And one of the reasons it has seen better days is that the centre has been ripped apart by out of town centres, dotted around the ring road. And in one of those out of town centres is a new McGuirks Golf shop to which I drag himself.

I say drag, I don’t really have to drag because he is getting a present, a new golf trolley, a new PowerCaddy no less. Gone are the days when we bought each lovely and expensive jewellery now we are buying lovely and expensive golf equipment. He himmms and hawes over whether he wanted a PowerCaddy… I pottered about the shop, came back, he is still thinking about it and he is not even the one buying it. The sales chap was no better, in fact he could not even assemble the trolley, “oh they are only new in and I’ve not used one”. Peter then says, oh let me think about it and the sales guy says “sure that’s no problem, we have a sale coming up anyway with 15% off so you could always come back. How to close a deal....not.

We have coffee, another mull over the idea and head back to the golf shop and I’m thinking we’ll be here all day. I corner another sales guy and say “I hear you have a sale in a couple of weeks with 15% off”, he says “oh maybe, we not sure of the exact %”. I say, fine, we cannot make it back for the sale. He says the discount might be available online. I say “well if you fancy doing the deal today, right here and now we’ll buy that PowerCaddy with the 15% discount. And like that himself has a PowerCaddy.

Getting a Golf Handicap

We joined the local golf club and one of us already has a handicap to play, that’s how well organised the women are, no surprised there. Whereas the men are still asking Peter for more score cards and what better excuse then to head out for a round of golf. And in fact for the first few holes he plays

very well, in fact too well and when I mention that this level of golf might affect his handicap he immediately drops a level.

The golf course is looking in splendid condition. There were a number of competitions on over the weekend, including playoffs of county matches which created a lovely atmosphere in the club.
All in all an extremely enjoyable 9 holes of golf, card signed and put into the office for the calculation of a handicap.

Sunday morning and a walk on the beach

It proved to be the perfect time to walk on the beach. We are absolutely determined to walk on the nearby beaches most days. It was one of the key reasons to be near the sea and there is nothing more relaxed, calming and energising that a walk. 

This is our local beach, Bail Ban, and it is a little gem. There are nicer beaches around but it's easy to knock of 5,000 steps strolling along here.

Our next challenge is to cycle there, its about 2km and then walk.

A Drive Around Slea Head

One of the choices as we leave Dingle to head to Ballyferriter is whether to drive around Slea Head. I am sure there'll come a time when that choice is not longer exciting. For now driving back to the house via one of the worlds most beautiful drive is still exhilarating. We decided to do it this weekend because as the summer season reaches its heady heights in August the road will be jam packed. 

As you round one bend this is the view (on a clear day) that greets you. Truly breathtaking

Further on around the drive you come across Coumeenole Beach. One of the most iconoc sites on the Dingle Peninsula, Coumeenole is a popular stop for travellers on the Slea Head Drive, providing dramatic views of the Blasket Islands. 

One of the filming locations for  Ryan's Daughter, the currents in the water here make it unsafe for swimming.

It is also an haven for surfing and despite the signs not to swim or surfing there'll always be people in the sea. If you visit it is a must.

You can find out more about the other beaches of Dingle here. 

Caife Na Tra

Time for coffee and we'd heard about Cafe na Tra, which is the Irish for Beach Cafe. It is in Dunquin, and right on the edge of the cliffs. 

An enterprising person has set up tables and chairs, baked lovely cakes and scones and opened a cafe.

On days like these we had to stop and enjoy the views.

Well worth a visit.

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Feile Na Bealtaine

The Feile Na Bealtaine translated into English as the May Festival. Many towns across Ireland have May festival and Dingle is  no different. Founded 10 years ago in Dingle 2017 was to be the biggest yet.

As a celebration of all things cultural there were concerts, parades, book launches and talk, games, poetry and walks.

Visit http://feilenabealtaine.ie/home/ for more details but if you are looking for something to do next May bank holiday we'd absolutely recommend choosing Dingle for the 2018 Feile Na Bealtaine.

Our favourites were Jess Kidd chatting about her debut novel Himself, Sebastian Barry talking about his Costa award winning novel Days Without End. We saw music from Marie Breatnach, Spats Colombo, Katie Kim, Abigail Joffe and Peter went to Mozart's Requiem.

And the weather was amazing.
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And eight came to dinner

We owed a number of people dinner. On our previous trips to Dingle we been welcomed into several people's houses for dinner, sometimes on more than one occasion. We definitely needed to repay the generosity and choose Saturday evening as the ideal time. Eight were us two, AM, R&S and T&M. And Jess Kidd, author of Himself a brilliant novel who was appearing at the festival and stayed over an extra night with us.

Because we were spending the day out and about we had to prepare the meal like a military operation and in fact the day before.

Beginning with smoked haddock and asparagus soup  - which was delicious if I say so myself. The asparagus came all the way from the other side of Ballyferriter.

Main course was a Mary Berry's Chicken & Dijon with a vegetarian dish from The Happy Pear.

Finished off with the classic rice pudding, which sadly whilst being scummy had stayed in the oven for a little too long.

A lovely evening was had by all, we think anyway.

A day for a skip

Note to self, if ever (and this is highly unlikely) I am buying another place to live always check the garage has been emptied before you sign the dal.

The excitement back in early September was dulled ever so slightly when we opened the garage door and found a lot of items that we did not ask for.

So we hemmed and hawed over taking it ourselves to the dump in the back of the rental car or hiring a van locally and doing it in one run. Or finding a man who'd take a 50euro note to deal with it all.

There was sun-chairs, washing machine, three front doors no less, acres of wood and a raft of other smaller items. After much deliberation and meetings the chair and company secretary decided a skip was in order.

The wonderful people at South West Kerry skips promised and delivered a skip on time and in

exchange of 350Euros.

And the team got going and clearing out the garage making sure we maximised the space and kept under the very clear notice "do not fill above the top"

And so two hours later we had an empty garage, well nearly empty and a full skip.

It didn't stay that full for long. The plumber the following day asked if he could take several items out of it for the local football club. Same the world over eh. There is always someone who will take what you don't want.

Off to Valentia Island for the weekend

In the name of research for upcoming visitors we embarked on a holiday within a holiday when we went for the weekend around to the Iveragh Peninsula and in particular Valentia Island. http://www.valentiaisland.ie/
It's worth noting here that when the spell checker could not find the word Iveragh in the dictionary it offered Rivera instead, appropriate I'd say.

It is possible to scoot around this headland in a day, long drive but doable. However we wanted a leisurely drive, take in the scenery and make sure we spotted all the great places to tell you about.

And its a lovely place to visit, people were really nice, on the island itself it was very quiet and

tranquil with few cars on the road.
We stayed in Knightstown which is most famous for being one end of the first cable to connect Europe and North America.
Our accommodation for the night was at the Royal Valentia Hotel, named after one of the Royal family who stayed there: http://royalvalentia.ie/ Nice bunch of folk.

The island is accessible by either a bridge or a tiny ferry - I'd recommend the ferry.
One highlight was going to the top of the highest mountain on the island, accessed initially by car and then a walk. Amazing views over to the Skelligs, down along the coast and back across the headlands.
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The next morning we headed back along the bottom of the island stopping off at the viewing point called the Kerry Cliffs. Basically, whilst being a formal tourist attraction on the Wild Atlantic Way, it is essentially the enterprise of one farmer who ploughed his field and laid a path, to allow people to walk across it. Once over the fields you are at the edge of cliffs that are about 1,000ft high and brilliant. There are fences but not of the standard/quality/height you might see in a country that's hyper about safety.
It's hard for a camera on a Samsung phone to do it justice, so you'll just have to visit in person.
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Back home stopping off in Killarney. To be avoided unless you want to buy any of the following: t-shirt with a leprechaun on it, a hat with a leprechaun on it, a bag with a leprechaun on it or a top with a phrase "my Mum went to Ireland & all she brought me back was a leprechaun". You get the drift.

We did however pop into the golf club as yer man wanted new golf socks. In the pro shop we overheard a conversation...
Man of an age over 60 says "did you hear that Jimmy in the butchers has got married"
Woman of an age over 60 says "What!, Jimmy, our Jimmy?"
Man replies "Yes our Jimmy".
Woman replies, "God I didn't think he had it in him"
Man replies "Married a Filipino"
Woman who stares, take a deep breath and say "What, Jimmy? Jimmy's married a Filipino"?

Hard to know what else to say to that.
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Star Wars in Ballyferriter

Anyone for tea - only in Ireland

Green Street in Dingle

View from sun lounge of Mount Brandon

Just in case you need to talk to God 

Only in Ireland