Travel-log Part 4: Killarney
Killarney was probably our favorite.
I don’t know why, but I never expected to find mountains in Ireland.
But as we drove from Blarney Castle toward Killarney, that’s exactly what we found.
We spent three days in Killarney, and it was by far our favorite part of the trip. It was a beautiful, magical part of our vacation, and is definitely a place I would happily return to.
We stayed at Cahernane House, a lovely place (despite lack of AC) and it was nice to have a bit of a “home base” for a few days, rather than packing up and leaving every day as we had been doing.
The grounds were gorgeous, and the view!
Well, it had mountains in it.
On the way in, we stopped by a gas station and got ourselves some butter, cheese and utensils, and had a lovely dinner of cheese, jam, and bread, just like in a good fantasy series. It was nice to have simple fare that felt a little more homemade.
The next day, our first full day in Killarney, we had several animal adventures!
First, we got up early and headed over to a stable, where we saddled up (okay, they saddled the horses for us) and went on a 2.5-3 hour trail ride through Killarney National Forest. It was absolutely gorgeous and so much fun. The trail guides were awesome. I rode a horse named Pringle, and Derek rode a horse named David (pronounced “Davish”). It was such a neat way to spend time outside and see a lot of the landscape and beauty of the wilder side of Killarney, and a great beginning to our time there.
After our horseback ride, we got some lunch, swung by Ross Castle… (see the view in the top/cover photo of this post, it was gorgeous!)
And then we got to go experience falconry!
This whole day was just like being in a storybook. Truly and honestly.
We got to hold a hawk named Ericka and two different kinds of owl. The little one was named Pookah, I don’t remember what the bigger one’s name was.
The next day, we took it easy. It was so very nice. We did a little bit of souvenir shopping and enjoyed chatting with Daniel, the shop owner. We also went on a very short little hike to see a cool waterfall, and randomly decided to visit Muckross House, which was gorgeous.
For most of the day, though, we just hung out around Cahernane House, I wrote a couple thousand words on the sequel to An Echo of the Fae that I’ve been steadily working on all year (I really really can’t wait to tell you more about this project, trying to keep it all in is really hard… but I want to get through the Turrim Archive releases before I start shrieking about the next project), and Derek plotted out some world building and ideas for me for a sequel series to The Minstrel’s Song!
Yep.
That’s kind of a big reveal here in the middle of my story about our vacation. I’m not sure when I’ll write it, but I’m getting excited about the idea of returning to write in the realm of Tellurae Aquaous with its epic feel and dragon riders…
Of course, I have to finish up the Turrim Archive first. And finish drafting the sequel to Echo. And I have a couple of fairy tale retellings that I want to work on. But who knows what order these things will actually happen in?
Anyway, that was our three-day stint in Killarney. The last night there we finally wandered around the downtown area, got ice cream, ate at a neat little pub which promised live music but I guess we were there at the wrong time.
If we go again, there are still many things I’d love to do that we didn’t get to. Climb a mountain, hike up the Gap of Dunloe, eat at Kate Kearney’s Cottage, ride the boat across the lake to Ross Castle… so I guess there are plenty of reasons to go back. The kids all really want us to take them to Ireland now, and Killarney is the place we went that was the most “family vacationy” place we went.
Okay, this post has been brimming with pictures and is way too long, so I’ll sign off now. Tune in next time to hear about our trip to the Cliffs of Insanity (er… Moher), Burren National Park, and our last days in Ireland!