Day 9: Dingle Dingle

We woke up this morning with bright eyes and bushy tails which had to be tamed to a more manageable state.  I was looking at a lot of driving today, but there were a bunch of cool mountain roads so I was at least looking forward to parts of it.  We drove around Dingle Peninsula and then all the way up the the Cliffs of Moher.

First in Dingle was a few old beehive huts and Gallarus Oratory.  I still don’t really know what an oratory is but it seemed like a little chapel.  It was pretty sweet because it’s just made of stone with no mortar but over the last thousand-plus years it has remained exactly the same and is still waterproof.  All the flat stones it’s built of slope downward so all the water falls outwards, kinda  like a bunch of shingles stacked up to make a domed building.  The beehive huts were similar but round. 

Cool stuff.  They also let us a feed a bunch of sheep which was fun and slimy.

We also stopped at Dunbeag Fort which is right on a cliff and probably won’t be there much longer due to erosion. 

Next up was a cool old church (Kilmalkedar).  It had a sundial and a stone that they used to use to teach the Roman alphabet to students.  It was neat to see the chiseled letters in the rock that you could still make out.  Of course the view from there was amazing so we sat down for cheese, sausage, and bread lunch. 

We were driving through Dingle and saw Dingle Distillery so we stopped for a tour.  The tour guide was super informative and funny so it was a good time.  Their gin is amazing.

We got back in the car and drove 3 hours up to our next lodging right near the Cliffs of Moher. 

There was still plenty of daylight so we decided to hit up the Cliffs a day early.  Most of the big tour groups had left already so it was a great time to go.  The cliffs are pretty majestic, the pictures definitely don’t capture the heights.  Cris got to feeling a bit vertigoish so we took our time and sat on some steps for leftover pizza.  It was lovely.