Yesterday, after an early morning start up at the fort, we got on the road bound for Kenmare over in County Kerry. Uns and I left a bit before Claire and Michael as we were going to take the slow scenic drive - same road as them but more stops for photos :) We set off towards Skibbereen and Ballydehob, then via Bantry and around to Glengarriff, where we continued onto The Healy Pass instead of the main direct road over, mainly as it would be a lot more scenic drive.

Even though we left quite a bit before Claire and Michael, they still managed to pass us at the bottom of the pass while I was out snapping a few pictures! The Healy Pass is a winding mountain road between Adrigole in County Cork and Lauragh in County Kerry. Cutting through the high Caha Mountains, the Healy Pass rises 334 metres above sea level and passes between two of the highest peaks of the Caha range. This is one of the finest mountain roads in Ireland and is named after Tim Healy, the first Governor-General of the Irish Free State, who was born in nearby Bantry. In the Thin Lizzy song, Whiskey in the Jar, they make reference to the mountains in the opening lyrics, "As I was goin' over the Cork and Kerry mountains..."

Over on the Kerry side we slowly made our way through to Kenmare, arriving there around mid afternoon. After arriving we checked into O'Donnabhain's on Henry street, one of the three main streets that form a triangle in the centre of the town. O'Donnabhain's (Irish for O'Donovan's apparently) is a lovely little guesthouse and B&B place in the middle of the town, with a traditional pub, beer garden and restaurant all contained within. Claire and Michael had obviously arrived there a bit earlier than us, and had already checked in and were over the road in Crowley's Bar. After dropping our bags we headed over the street and met up with them for a pre-dinner drink, as well as meeting up with Teresa who arrived a bit after us. Tony was finished up at work, so had planned to only meet us later hopefully while we were still at dinner.

After just the one drink at Crowley's we moved up the road (everything is fairly close to each other in Kenmare) to Packie's Restaurant, a well known family run restaurant which was highly recommended by both Tony and Teresa. They live just outside the centre of Kenmare, so know the place well, especially some of the better restaurants around. Tony managed to join us for dinner as well, arriving in time before we had all finished our dinner, so that was good timing. After our meal and dessert, which was fantastic and definitely a good recommendation, we moved on back to Crowley's for a couple there. After our beers, we left Tony and Teresa as she wasn't feeling too well with the flu and we thought we'd try one more pub before calling it a night. Just around the corner was PF McCarthy's, a pub, restaurant and music venue and had a few guys playing some live music. It was more a Spanish sound than anything Irish, but nice to have that in the background. After just one there we decided to call it a night and head back to the B&B, which conveniently wasn't more than a couple minutes walk away.

This morning we started the day off with breakfast downstairs at O'Donnabhain's before checking out and making our way over towards The Ring of Kerry, which sort of starts (and ends I guess) in Killarney. Our first stop, and photo opportunity, was Torc waterfall is at the base of Torc Mountain, about 8km from Killarney. It's clearly quite the popular tourist stop, and pretty sure we stopped there a few years back when the folds were over and we did our roundtrip around Ireland.

After Torc waterfall we continued in the same anti-clockwise direction as before along The Ring until we got to Muckross House, set in the heart of Killarney National Park. Muckross House is found on the small Muckross Peninsula between Muckross Lake and Lough Leane, two of the lakes of Killarney. Its a sixty-five bedroom mansion built back in 1843 in the Tudor style. Unfortunately the wind had picked up to insane gale force levels, so walking around in the gardens was anything but fun or enjoyable. Claire and Michael had already been down to the lake and weren't interested in fighting with that wind again, do left Uns and I to battle it out on our own. We got down to the heft, then very quickly turned around and headed back before getting blown off our feet!

After a struggle with the wind to get back to the car, we left the National Park and headed back in the same direction we came, towards Kenmare, but this time branched off just before and continued along The Ring in a clock towards Sneem, about 25 minutes away. Just before the town, we turned into Parknasilla Resort And Spa, which is currently being run and managed by Tony. The place was recently just bought for €10m, so they're looking to have it refurbished before the summer months. It boasts a total of 83 bedrooms and suites, as well as 62 self catering villas just off the main building, alongside a 12 hole golf course. The spa and leisure centre has 13 treatment rooms, a thermal suite and relaxation areas overlooking Kenmare Bay. Not too shabby if I say so myself. After meeting up with Tony, Claire and Michael, we sat chatting away in the lounge and had a bit of soup and coffee to keep us going, as none of us were particularly hungry after the morning's fry-up. After something to eat, we were shown around the resort as well as the spa downstairs. Unfortunately the weather was awful and the wind had hardly subsided, so I didn't get to take too many pictures, but did manage to find a few photos online of how the resort would look in better weather. Might have to try book in a couple of nights before they hike the prices up :)

After our tour of the resort, we decided to head back in the direction of Kenmare and stopped in at Teresa to see how she was feeling, and also look if Michael and I were able to try and fix Tony's new Tour de France exercise bike, but to no avail. Was worth a try though. From Teresa, it was straight back down to Castlehaven on the direct road, avoiding the scenic Healy Pass considering it was pitch dark and raining. No point taking the longer road home. Then tonight has just been a really quiet one at home in front of the TV. There was talk about heading into the village for quiz night, but don't think anyone particularly felt like moving. If at least one of us had gotten up and was keen, the rest would've followed, but all of us had the same idea in mind, which was TV, couch and the open fireplace!