Ring of Kerry from Cill Airne

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Killarney

   Killarney is where Ireland's tourist trade began, and the landscape explains why. The town sits at the edge of a national park of lakes, woods and mountains, with the Lakes of Killarney, Lough Leane, Muckross Lake and the Upper Lake, strung out in a valley of oak, yew and arbutus. Behind rise Macgillycuddy's Reeks, with Carrauntoohil, the highest peak in Ireland at just over a thousand metres. Red deer, the only native herd in the country, roam the park, and the mild, wet climate keeps everything bright green.

   Read the complete Killarney write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Killarney is where the day begins. Next is Killorglin.

2. 2. Killorglin

   Every August, Killorglin crowns a goat. This is not a joke or a metaphor: a wild mountain goat is caught, brought into the town, and set on a high platform in the square as King Puck, to reign for three days over Puck Fair, one of the oldest and strangest festivals in Ireland. Nobody quite knows how it began, and the tradition is said to go back some four hundred years or more. Horse trading, music, street stalls and a great deal of drinking go on around the clock, and at the end the goat is freed and returned to the hills. It is peculiar, joyful and entirely sincere.

   Read the complete Killorglin write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Killorglin comes up about 21 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cahersiveen.

3. 3. Cahersiveen

   Cahersiveen is the one town on the Iveragh peninsula that feels like a place rather than a stop, a long, low main street of coloured shopfronts and pubs, tucked under the rounded bulk of Bentee and Knocknadobar mountains, and looking out over the Fertha river and Valentia Harbour toward the island. About twelve hundred people live here, and a lot of them seem to be in the street on a fine afternoon. The Ring of Kerry has plenty of showier sights, but Cahersiveen has the habit of making visitors stay longer than they planned.

   Read the complete Cahersiveen write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   At least about 62 km into the recorded legs you reach Cahersiveen. Next is Waterville.

4. 4. Waterville

   Charlie Chaplin used to holiday in Waterville, and the town has not forgotten. A bronze statue of the comedian, in his bowler hat and cane, stands on the seafront, looking out across Ballinskelligs Bay, and each August the town holds a comedy festival in his honour. Chaplin came here with his family in the 1960s and enjoyed the fishing and the quiet. It is a small, neat seaside village strung along a narrow strip of land between the bay and a large freshwater lake, Lough Currane, and the combination of water, sand and mountains makes it one of the prettiest on the Iveragh Peninsula.

   Read the complete Waterville write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Waterville, about halfway. Next is Kenmare.

5. 5. Kenmare

   Kenmare sits at the head of a long sea inlet, with mountains on both sides and the Kerry hills rolling away to the north, and it is one of the best-placed small towns in Ireland. It was laid out as a planned town in the late eighteenth century by the Lansdowne estate, and the streets still form a tidy shape around a central market place, with colourful shopfronts, craft shops and some of the best restaurants in the south-west. Because it stands where the Ring of Kerry meets the Beara Peninsula, it is a natural starting point for either.

   Read the complete Kenmare write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Kenmare sits at 90 km, about halfway. Next is Molls Gap.

6. 6. Molls Gap

   Molls Gap is named after Moll Kissane, who kept a shebeen here in the nineteenth century, an unlicensed pub where the road builders were sold illicit whiskey as they cut the highway through the mountains. The road, the N71 between Kenmare and Killarney, tops the pass at about 260 metres, and the view from the car park at the summit is among the finest in the south-west of Ireland, looking over the wild peaks of Macgillycuddy's Reeks, the lakes of Killarney National Park and the deep green valleys below. The gap itself is a natural notch in the hills, and the small building at the top, a café and craft shop, has been serving tea to travellers for years.

   Read the complete Molls Gap write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Molls Gap comes up about 150 km into the recorded legs. Next is Killarney, mostly downhill.

7. 7. Killarney

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Killarney write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Killarney closes the day.