One of my favorites memories from our Europe backpacking trip is our Ireland Coast Road Trip. Our selected route started in Dublin (after spending three days there) and ended after dropping off our rental car back in Dublin.
Here is a map of the route we took around Ireland:
I wrote about our first day three days driving around Ireland here, here, and here. Today I’m sharing our fourth day of the road trip spent driving around the Dingle Peninsula!
Dingle Peninsula
The Dingle Peninsula, while still a popular place for tourism, seems to be lesser known than its neighbor to the south, the Ring of Kerry. Since we drove the two routes within a day of each other, we were able to easily compare the two. The weather was less rainy for our drive around Dingle Peninsula which allowed us to take many more pictures, but it was just as cold and windy. I think Daniel and I both agree that we thought the Dingle Peninsula was the more scenic and generally more jaw-dropping of the two routes, but you need to drive them both and make your own decision!
Here is a map of our driving route around the peninsula:
For those of you here for a quick resource, here is a short list of our route. We drove from our hotel in Killarney and made the following stops around the peninsula:
- Conor Pass
- The Beehive Huts
- The town of Dingle
- Inch Beach
- Plenty of random stops to soak in the beautiful landscape
We mostly stuck to the popular Slea Head Drive, but we went a little off course to get to some of the stops. This drive can easily be done in a day. We were able to do it without feeling rushed during winter when it gets dark by 5pm.
Conor Pass
Conor Pass is one of the highest mountain passes in Ireland, so usually it is a prime spot for incredible views. Unfortunately, the fog took away most of the view for us, but it was still beautiful.
Beehive Huts
A collection of ancient homes called the Fahan Beehive Huts sit just west of the town of Dingle. Their year of origin is not officially known, but some historians think they date back to the 12th century when Norman invaders forced farmers out from more prosperous areas of Ireland. This is an easy stop off of Slea Head Drive – just park your car on the side of the road, pay a person inside of a little hut a small admission fee (cash only), and walk up the hill to the ancient homes. Once again, we were the only ones there, so being alone along with the crazy wind and fog added to the mystery of the ruins.
Dingle
Dingle is the only actual town on the Dingle Peninsula. I couldn’t wait to get there because I had heard and read great things about it.
Dingle is the cutest little town, but, goodness, does it close down for winter! We could barely find a place open to eat. We eventually did find a little cafe that served delicious seafood after walking around and soaking in all the charm.
And…. Call us crazy, but we had to go to the flagship location of Murphy’s Ice Cream despite the cold weather! I raved about this ice cream in my Dublin post when we went to that location, so I just had to try this ice cream from the original location where it is all handmade! It did not disappoint!
After ice cream we walked around a little more and spotted Foxy John’s – a bar and hardware store all in one! It was closed, but it was still fun to peek in the windows.
We will be back to Dingle one day so we can enjoy some live music, see the locals out for a sunny day, and meet Fungie the dolphin!
Inch Beach
We didn’t take any pictures at Inch Beach, but it’s a beautiful place to stop. Several movies have actually been filmed there.
Random Stops Along the Way
The most beautiful places we saw on Dingle Peninsula were the random places we chose to stop to take pictures and soak in the moment. For the rest of these pictures, I can’t tell you exactly where we were, but they are a glimpse into what you would see if you took a drive around the coast of this peninsula.
Told you it was windy!
Daniel told me this was one of his favorite moments from our entire backpacking trip because there was not another car to be seen. It felt like the whole area belonged to just us and the Irish sheep. 🙂
Click here to see a guide to Dublin, where we kicked off our time in Ireland. Click here to see where we stopped along our route from Dublin to Kilkenny as well as a summary of our full road trip around Ireland. And click here to see what we did for our full day in Kilkenny, and here to read about our trip around the Ring of Kerry.
I’ll be back soon with the rest of our Irish road trip!
{Click here to see all of my posts from our Ireland road trip. Our time in Ireland was part of a 2.5 month trip across Western Europe. Click here to check out all of my posts from this adventure!}
{Thanks for reading! Want to know a little more about me? I’m a CPA learning how to balance a career with frequent travel while planting roots at home in Austin, TX. When I’m not exploring my home city with my husband Daniel or cuddling with our chubby orange cat Banana, I’m probably planning, packing, traveling to, or daydreaming about our next adventure. After all, my travel mug collection is never complete. If you have wanderlust too, be sure to follow me on Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat(emilya89), or subscribe to my blog!}
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