Today, we checked out of our hotel around 9am and headed for the Dingle Peninsula.
But first, a little bit more about yesterday. For those of you that were wondering about why we had images of a goat wearing a crown - every year the people of Killorgin in Kerry Country celebrate "Puck Faire". This is one of the oldest fairs in Ireland. It stands for Fair of the He goat. Every year a group of people go up into the mountains and catch a wild goat. The goat is brought back to the town and the "Queen of Puck", traditionally a young school girl from one of the local primary schools, crowns the goat "King Puck".
The goat is then put into a small cage on a high stand for three days, and on the 3rd day of the fair, he is brought down to be led back to the mountains. In the middle of the town square, he is crowned and this signifies that the festivities may begin. Hence the statue of the crowned goat.
Today, we traveled the Dingle Peninsula towards the Blasket Islands. The scenery was quite beautiful along this road. As usual, there were many many sheep along the way. It was interesting to see the ruins from the 12th and 13th century alongside home constructed recently, as though the two eras were coincided together. It was as though new construction was just built around old ruins.
One of the interesting pieces of old architecture were "basket homes" - round hut-like structures with thatched roofs.
At the end of the peninsula, we stopped at the Blasket Islands Centre, which was an interpretive centre that described life on the Basket Islands, just off the coastline of Dingle Peninsula. It described the hard life of the island inhabitants, resulting in its evacuation in 1953.
From the Blasket Islands, we continued our travels through many small villages and on to Limerick. Limerick is one of the larger cities in Ireland, with a population of around 60,000. It was first established around 922 AD when the Vikings landed.
We checked in to our hotel, and discovered we had been assigned an executive room, complete with Executive lounge with complimentary wine and snacks. The room was large, and very comfortable.
The whole group were treated to a three course meal in the hotel dining room. It was a wonderful meal with great company.
We settled in to our room shortly after 9pm, ready for sleep.
Hotel: Limerick Strand Hotel
Weather: mix of sun and cloud - high 19c
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