Dingle is a small harbour town at the western end of County Kerry's Dingle Peninsula, with fewer than two thousand people but about as many pubs as you could want. The streets slope toward the water, shops and houses are painted in strong colours, and the harbour is full of fishing boats. This is a Gaeltacht area, where Irish is still the everyday language for many families, so you may see signs in Irish first, and the town's Irish name, An Daingean, appears on the road markers.
The peninsula is one of Ireland's richest landscapes for history. There are thousands of ancient monuments, from standing stones and ring forts to early Christian beehive huts, and the Gallarus Oratory, a stone chapel shaped like an upturned boat, has stood for over a thousand years without mortar. Out to sea, the Blasket Islands lie in the Atlantic, abandoned in 1953 but loved for the writers who grew up there. For decades, a bottlenose dolphin called Fungie lived in the harbour and was the town's most famous resident, and boat trips still go out to look for wildlife.
The ride around Slea Head is a classic, narrow and exposed with the ocean on one side and the mountain on the other. Beyond it the road climbs over the Conor Pass, at about 410 metres the highest pass in Ireland, with a narrow, twisting road and a drop to a glacial lake. It is a spectacular road but one-lane in places, so go carefully, and avoid it in thick fog or high winds. Summer brings tour buses, so start early. Weather is changeable, with soft rain and fast-moving sun, so a waterproof is essential.
Dingle has fuel, a few supermarkets, and countless cafes and bed-and-breakfasts. In high season rooms fill quickly. Cahersiveen, twenty-odd kilometres to the southwest across the water, also has fuel. Try a plate of fresh seafood at one of the harbour restaurants, a local ice cream, and a pint in a pub where there may be a session of traditional music in the evening.