Ireland travel tours: Dingle Peninsula and Ring of Kerry tour

Your journey begins in Cork, the second-largest city in Ireland and a great introduction to Irish hospitality and history. Among Cork’s attractions are the English Market, a covered food market which has been trading for over 200 years, not one, but two cathedrals, and the old town.

If you’ve arrived early, you could also visit the picturesque harbourside town of Cobh, famous as a departure point for mass emigration to the United States, and the last stop for the Titanic before its fateful voyage across the Atlantic. Both events are commemorated by heritage and experience centres, and the town also holds the tallest cathedral in Ireland, St Colman’s.

After exploring the area, in the late afternoon you’ll meet up with your tour leader, and your fellow guests at Ballymaloe House, a historic castle-turned-manor house hotel. After an introductory talk, the group will enjoy dinner at the hotel, ahead of your journey to the Wild Atlantic Way the following day.

• Hotel: Ballymaloe House, Shanagarry
• Group dinner

Today we’ll travel from Cork to Dingle, journeying from what can feel like ‘modern’ Ireland back to its traditional past. The scenic Dingle Peninsula juts out into the Atlantic Ocean and features mountains, castles, beaches and a sizable population of native Irish speakers!

On the way we’ll visit historic towns, and Inch Beach, a sweeping, dune-covered spit of sand reaching out into Dingle Bay which boasts excellent views over the water, and of the neighbouring Iveragh Peninsula. We’ll also take in views of distant mountains, and much closer, rare Inch conglomerate.

For lunch, we’ll be stopping into the South Pole Inn, a reminder of the heroic age of Antarctic exploration. Opened and once run by local Tom Crean, the Inn is a testament to the bygone age of Antarctic discovery, and Crean’s own exploits on the expeditions of both Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton.

This part of Dingle, and the peninsula as a whole, is a great way to start ‘reading the rocks’ of Ireland’s 485-million-year-old geological history, when this part of the country was south of the equator. Highlights include signs of ancient sand dunes from when the area was a desert, evidence of a deep ocean, and a variety of exposed sediments and tectonic faults on Trabeg Beach.

After exploring the area’s cliffs and castles, we’ll round off day two of your Ireland vacation by checking into the Pax Guest House, a free evening to explore Dingle and a look forward to the morning view!

• Hotel: Pax Guest House, Dingle
• Free evening

Yesterday was only a taster of the Dingle Peninsula; today, you’ll be travelling to its very western end, taking in plenty of incredible views along the way.

This leg involves plenty of geological and human history, including Fahan’s curious ‘beehive huts’, striking old red sandstone cliffs and views of the isolated Blasket Islands. Once home to purely Irish speakers, the island populations gradually shrank as residents emigrated to mainland Ireland or elsewhere, eventually leaving them a silent testament to generations of persevering islanders.

We’ll be discovering the island’s lost people and cultures at the heritage centre, and after lunch, catching a boat out to the islands proper to see the abandoned village, Silurian and Lower Devonian rocks and the resident seal colony.

Alternatively, if conditions aren’t right for the boat trip, we’ll take a scenic walk from the heritage centre to a filming site from the Robert Mitchum film Ryan’s Daughter with Silurian fossils, then travel to Clogher Head, to take in volcanic rocks and an excellent panoramic view of the Blasket Islands and Dingle’s neighbouring peninsulas.

• Hotel: Pax Guest House, Dingle
• Group dinner in a local restaurant

Your last day on the Dingle Peninsula starts with a trip to the town of Ballyferriter to do a scenic circular walk in the area of Clogher Strand, seeing more evidence of Ireland’s volcanic past. Above the Strand, we’ll visit Louis Mulcahy Pottery, and hear the story of how a competition win led Louis to gamble by moving his entire business across country from Dublin to Dingle.

Other points of interest include the Gallarus Oratory, a well-preserved early-Christian church, and one of the best examples in Ireland.

The afternoon will be free to discover the delights of Dingle town, which holds plenty of art galleries, churches, and craft shops. If you’re up for a walk, you can also head out of town to visit Hussey’s Folly, an ‘artificial ruin’ built during the Great Famine to provide local citizens with employment.

Weather-permitting, we’ll then head up to the Conor Pass, up a winding mountain road, capped with spectacular views of the Owenmore Valley and the Brandon Mountains. The viewing spot is an excellent place to better understand the glacial forces that shaped the incredible landscape into its present day state. Later on, we’ll bid a fond farewell to Dingle and depart for your accommodation for the next two nights, Ard na Sidhe Country House, a secluded, spacious manor house hotel on the shores of Lake Caragh.

• Hotel: Ard na Sidhe, County Kerry
• Group dinner in the hotel

From our new starting base on the Iveragh Peninsula, we’ll be heading off after breakfast to explore Valentia Island, one of Ireland’s largest islands. We’ll take a scenic drive down the north coast, visit an Iron Age ring fort then cross the bridge onto Valentia Island proper, passing Ireland’s highest mountain, Carrauntoohil, before crossing the bridge onto Valentia Island proper.

Valentia is full of history from across the timeline, stretching from the first transatlantic cable being laid in 1865, to hosting Ireland’s oldest slate quarry, to even showing tracks of early vertebrates from 385 million years ago!

Other attractions include the Skellig Experience Centre, which tells the story of the remote Skellig Islands, the larger of which still holds a monastery founded in the 6th century. While we won’t be visiting the islands first-hand, the Skellig Centre does an excellent job of showing what life was like on the isolated, storm-battered islands for their devout residents.

• Hotel: Ard na Sidhe, County Kerry
• Final Group dinner

It’s time to enjoy the final breakfast of your Ireland vacation, but we’ve saved a pair of surprises until last.

First up is a spectacular valley on the way out of County Kerry, the Gap of Dunloe – take your pictures while you can! We’ll then get on the road to Cork, stopping off at Muckross House and Gardens in Ireland’s ‘Lake District’.

Built in the Victorian era, Muckross House is an incredible mansion to behold, with equally pleasing grounds holding a variety of different garden types to explore and enjoy.

After some light refreshments at Muckross, we’ll drive the rest of the way back to Cork, to wrap up this epic tour of Ireland late afternoon.