Its medieval history, colourful townships and scenery straight out of a film set, give plenty of reasons to fall in love with Ireland's southwest, writes Marian McGuinness.
Scribbling the length of Ireland's dramatic western shoreline, the Wild Atlantic Way wends its way for 2500km from Kinsale in the south's County Cork to Malin Head in the north's County Donegal. With moss-covered fairy forests, time-travelled beehive huts and a plethora of welcoming pubs, this rugged coast is a heart stealer.
Ireland's southwest has five scenic peninsulas to explore. Dingle, Iveragh (with the Ring of Kerry), Beara, Sheep's Head and Mizen. It's as if Mother Nature long ago splayed her sea-weathered fingers into the Atlantic Ocean and where today, she cradles hamlets and towns within her coves.
I'm taking time to dally in Dingle town on the northernmost of the peninsulas.
With its luminous, emerald hills, ancient ruins and wandering black-faced sheep, Dingle is a photogenic fragment of County Kerry. National Geographic claimed it to be the most beautiful place on Earth. Over the centuries it has been home to monks and Vikings.
More recently Dingle welcomed stars from a Galaxy Far, Far Away, when two Star Wars movies, The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi were filmed on the peninsula and around the 12th-century beehive huts on the nearby island pyramid of Skellig Michael. Dingle's elemental landscape also featured in the films Ryan's Daughter and Far and Away.
To get my bearings, I set off on the Slea Head Drive, a 48km loop from Dingle. This part of Ireland is the heartland of Gaelic culture. Its road signs are bilingual; Irish first, then English. It is well marked with the blue and white Wild Atlantic Way wave symbol.
With more than 2000 archaeological sites, the Dingle peninsula is an open-air ancient history museum. Bronze Age wedge tombs and ogham stones, scribed with the parallel strokes of ancient Irish language, are found in their dozens.
Not far along the road are the ruins of the 15th-century Rahinnane Castle, where the Knights of Kerry resided. Remnants of the early medieval ringfort on which the castle was constructed are still visible. One legend tells of a mortal woman who was brought here by the fairies to breastfeed an orphaned fairy infant.
I stop off at the famine cottages of Fahan. They stand as stark reminders of the Great Famine in the 1840s that claimed more than a million lives. Long, parallel potato ridges, now overgrown, scar the hillsides. Inside these tiny abodes, I read the stories and letters posted on the walls that connect me to the struggles of a community that vanished during the time of the great starvation.
Further along the Slea Head Drive, I tarry at a clutch of ancient beehive huts that first appeared across Ireland during the late Stone Age.
These conical stone constructions are a marvel at insulating against the elements. While the wild wind whips and the Atlantic spray zings over me, once inside I'm cosy as I stand and measure its size by outstretching my arms to touch two opposite walls.
On the rocky cape that gives Slea Head its name, a life-sized, bleached-bone-white crucifixion scene marks the spot. From the jagged cliffs of drifting wildflowers, I look out to the Sleeping Giant on the horizon. It's the northernmost of the Blasket Islands' archipelago to which I will later voyage.
But Ireland's weather whims have changed and rain is washing my windscreen. It's cafe time and there are plenty to choose from that offer tasty baked goods for lunch. I hanker after the thickly layered apple pie but I've been too well-fed, so I ask to take it away. The lady tucks a generous piece into a brown paper bag and pops in a little pot of cream. "For the journey," she says, in a lilting tone.
Making the final turn in the loop back to Dingle, there's one last must-see on my list. The Gallurus Oratory. One of Ireland's iconic archaeological sites, it's a captivating 7th-century dry-stone chapel shaped like an upturned boat. Built from local sandstone, it appears like a portal into the landscape.
Constructed in the tradition of Neolithic tomb building called corbelling, stones are laid at a slight angle allowing rainwater to run off. I duck beneath the lintel. This tiny chapel is 4.8m long and 3m wide. It is lit by a small east-facing window. Although fully exposed to the assault of the Atlantic, it has never needed restoration. Such were the skills of the craftsmen.
After driving this snippet of the Wild Atlantic Way, it's time to get up-close-and-personal with the ocean.
I choose a three-hour Eco Marine Tour to the Blasket Islands 2km off the coast. Inhabited for nearly 2000 years, the islands are the last outposts of Europe. Once the bastion of famous Irish writers, they were abandoned in the 1950s.
After boarding a small boat at Ventry Harbour, I prime my sea legs and scoff a couple of ginger tablets to ward off seasickness.
I rug up and hunker down on the deck as our little boat seesaws out of the bay. A gaggle of guillemots glide above us on black-tipped wings before toppling over and plunging into the sea after fish.
We pass the ruins of Doonbeg Castle teetering on the cliff's edge. Stone walls lattice up the hillside to white-washed cottages.
"People love driving along the Wild Atlantic Way," says our skipper, as my face gets an Atlantic facial scrub, "but when it comes to being on the Wild Atlantic, well that's different!"
Like curious spyhopping whales, the islands appear to rise from the sea. They stand sentinel clothed in green and blushed with Sea Pink wildflowers. This is a designated Special Area of Conservation due to its range of habitats.
The sky throngs with the birdcall of gulls, fulmars, shags and peregrines. Rafts of puffins rest on the water. Some fly clumsily overhead with their red paddle feet waggling in the breeze as they're not really built for gliding.
Depending on the season, you'll see dolphins, whales, basking sharks and up to 15,000 seals in winter. After the enchantment of this marine ecosystem, it's time to brave the rollercoaster swell and return to Dingle.
Back on terra firma, I make a pilgrimage through a glacier-sculptured valley to the hamlet of Annascaul where a stone-and-timber pub called the South Pole Inn overlooks the Owenscaul River. Painted iceberg blue and white, this pub is the legacy of the heroic Antarctic explorer and Kerryman, Tom Crean, nicknamed the Irish Giant.
Once Crean's family home, it's now part-bar, part-museum. Crean went on three gruelling expeditions with Scott and Shackleton. On one expedition, the party ran into difficulties. Crean solo-trekked 18 hours across the ice pack to rouse a rescue party. As part of Shackleton's Endurance expedition, Crean navigated an open lifeboat to Elephant Island and then to South Georgia, playing out his part in the crew's survival.
A photo of Crean's rugged face, pipe in mouth, along with fascinating Antarctic memorabilia adorns the wooden walls of the two small rooms. Grab a pint of Expedition Ale brewed by the Cream family and wander the rooms where their ceilings swirl with the timeline of Crean's life. There are many of Frank Hurley's photos and newspaper clippings. There's even an Antarctic window to look through.
Returning to Dingle, it's time to get acquainted with this pretty town cradled in its harbour.
Dingle's colourful streets showcase a treasure trove of shops, restaurants and pubs. Dining is the challenging choice of seafood fresh off the trawlers, beef and lamb raised on the Blasket Islands, locally grown vegetables and their always scrumptious soda bread. Take time to stop at the legendary Murphy's Ice Cream. Using milk from Kerry cows these icecream creators even distil rainwater for their sorbets. Grab a cone of choc whiskey, Dingle gin or caramelised brown bread and stroll along the waterfront.
Dingle is also an artisan town of goldsmiths, weavers, artists and Waterford Crystal-trained glass blowers. They take their inspiration from the peninsula's wild beauty, from the iconic beehive huts fashioned into John Weldon's jewellery to the symbols of ancient ogham crafted in goldsmith Brian De Staic's stunning offerings.
With its musical name, Dingle is deemed the Capital of Craic. It has an abundance of traditional music venues. Many bars double up during the day such as J. Curran's 1870s old-style hardware shop and bar where you can buy a pair of Wellington boots and a pint of stout. Or Dick Mack's pub where patrons drink on one side of the room and have their shoes repaired on the other. The music starts around 9.30pm so get there early, pull up a stool, order a dewy pint of Guinness and settle in for the craic.
If you're in need of a bed in Dingle, Heaton's Guesthouse is acknowledged as one of Ireland's best. It's a five-minute walk into town. Sitting in their elegant harbourside dining room supping on Cointreau-laced porridge before tucking into their Full Irish breakfast is enough to warm your cockles and set you up for a day of exploring.
For more travel ideas in Ireland, see ireland.com
