The Dingle Peninsula, Ennis and The Cliffs of Moher

 Hello MOJOFAMILY fans!

We are nearing the end of our time in Ireland, but we wanted to fit in one last adventure from our temporary home in Killarney.

We've been waiting for a weather and work schedule window in order to make this journey happen. We rented a car for 2 days and went for a road trip on the "Wild Atlantic Way".

I should mention that this was the first time that Jason has driven a car since we were in Virginia in July, and he did all the driving. We have barely been in any cars on this trip, so this was an adventure in and of itself. Jason's first time driving on the left hand side of the road in his life, and fun for the three of us passengers to say 'keep left' and 'stay left' about 20 times an hour in order to 'support him'. 

Day One, stop 1: Inch Beach

About 45 min from Killarney, at the beginning of the Dingle Peninsula, is this amazing beach. The tide was way out after a full moon, so that and the sun (which we haven't been seeing much of lately) made it pretty magical.

Day One, stop 2: Ventry Beach

Past the town of Dingle and near the beginning of the Dingle Pennisula loop going clockwise, we found another impressive beach and bay to have our picnic lunch.

Day One, stop 3: Dunmore Head / Coumeenoole Beach

This spot is really impressive - probably our favorite sight in all of Ireland. Bonus points that Rey and Luke spent some time filming here for Star Wars movies 7,8. We looked at the beach from above and then hiked up and over the hill to the edge of Dunmore Head - it claims to be the most Westerly point of the EU. It's beautiful. We enjoyed the view of the Blasket Islands ahead, along with the beautiful colour of the water and the waves crashing against the rocks.

Day one, stop 4: Ceann Sibeal View Point

Honestly, we popped out of the car here, took a quick photo, and off we went. It was pretty, and also exciting again was that Star Wars 8 has some of this view in it.

We made our way around the rest of the loop, back through Dingle town, and then we headed North East through Tralee toward Limerick.

We had great fun making up limerick poems and other road trip games to distract us from the narrow windy roads full of potholes as we drove along. 

We made it to the town of Ennis, our destination for the night. We had dinner out at a terrific pub called Brogan's - apparently the best in town and we'd agree. The service and food was lovely, the kids meals were amazing value,m and Jason thought the urinals were funny too.

Yup - those are the urinals in the men's restroom

We made it to our hotel after supper. The hotel, Woodstock Hotel, was the one I just happened to pick because it was the cheapest in the area, but it was lovely. The kids and I went to the pool while Jason had some work to do, and then we went to sleep. Unfortunately we went to bed a bit late after a very big day - perhaps we tried to do a little bit too much in one day and should have stayed somewhere closer to Dingle and gotten to sleep earlier...

In the morning we decided to go for it with the hotel's all-you-can-eat buffet, and of course we did our best to get our money's worth! It was great.

Day Two, stop one: The Cliffs of Moher

It's about a 45 min drive from Ennis to the Cliffs of Moher. The weather looked ok for the morning with rain threatening in the afternoon, so we were keen to get there and enjoy what we could. It was 12 euro to park and go into the area (kids free), and we really enjoyed it. The visitor's center is nice and carved right into the landscape, and the fences everywhere are of flat stones that blend in rather nicely. 

We hiked up to the main viewing area, and enjoyed seeing the sight of the famous cave that Dumbledore and Harry Potter go to in order to find a locket. Then we hiked for a while south of the main sight to enjoy different view points here and there. It would have been really awesome except that the littlest Oliver didn't get enough sleep and was not interested in the activities of the day... oh well - that's real family travel!

Day Two: driving back

We stopped at Lahinch Beach and admired the surfers, and then the little village of Milton Malbay before driving inland through Ennis and Limerick. We stopped for a stretch and a snack at the town of Adare, which was adorable and had several cool church / cloister / friary structures to explore.

We hit some construction traffic on our way South toward Killarney, so poor Jason was pretty tired when we got home. But we made it home for dinner and evening work commitments.

It was a great adventure and I'm glad we decided to go for it and see these sights!