Sights of Killarney

Ross Castle on the shores of the lake

After our awesome day walk up Carrauntoohil we had the whole next day to spend checking out the sights of Killarney.  I have to say I do like Ireland, there are some nice spots.  They certainly like golf a lot, at least in this part of the country, but I'm not sure I even really saw a golf course.  Just an awful lot of golf memorabilia.

There were quite a few tourist sites around the place, excluding the national park (which was what we were really there for).  We saw Ross castle (didn't go inside - you could only do that with a tour guide).  It's this old ruined castle on the shores of a lake, I think it was actually built on an island, though it's not an island anymore.  There's not a lot of history to it, was built in the 15th century and at some point there was a siege of it, that's about it.  It looks very romantic though, this crumbling castle on the shores of the lake, surrounded by greenery.

The view towards Killarney National Park

Muckross Abbey

There was also the Muckross Abbey, again not a massive amount of history.  Built in the 1400's by Franciscan monks, then plundered by Cromwell's forces.  Again it's this romantic ruin, in the middle of a forest (I sense some trend here).  It's really very well preserved, for how long it has been abandoned.

Muckross House

Along with the abbey, there were also the Muckross House and gardens.  This seemed to be the main attraction of the area, the car park was massive.  Stonehenge car park had nothing on this place.  And yet the house itself wasn't particularly large.  Nice gardens though.  We couldn't see inside this place either as you could only go in with a tour group (again some sort of trend here with their tourist sites).

It's not particularly old, being built in 1843, it's meant to have something like 65 rooms, but I'm not sure they are all that big, given the size of the exterior.  Again not much to report about the house, it's been owned by a succession of really wealthy people, before eventually being gifted to the state.  It's definitely popular though, the cafe was maaasive.  And the gardens are nice and big, with lots of dogs running around.

Since we couldn't go inside the house we went to this working farm they have on site as well.  The farm is meant to be run using whatever would have been available in the 1930's, so there's these little houses, with no electricity or ovens or anything.  It's basically a chance to walk around and pat some animals.  It was a lot bigger than what you might have thought, it definitely wasn't just a petting zoo, but a proper farm.  Still a slightly odd tourist attraction.

Views across the lakes of Killarney

All around this area there were all these people with horse and carts.  It seemed that the traditional way for tourists to be transported was in a buggy.  I didn't see a lot of people partaking, some of the buggy drivers looked a little scary, and some of the horses looked a little mistreated.  It seemed like a lot of the jobs in this area were tied up with the tourist industry.  We were admiring the view across one of the lakes, and a really old guy came up to us and tried to get us to take a boat ride.  I wasn't so keen, I thought he was more likely to dump our bodies on some abandoned island.  I know Ireland has been going through some tough times lately, and it must be a pretty hard life at the moment, but if you want tourist dollars, perhaps tone down the crazy.

It's not to say I wouldn't be back, it's a really pretty area, and I would like to explore further in the hills.  I just don't think I'll be doing any pony trap rides anytime soon.