Friday and Saturday

Friday was picture perfect, weather wise. We did our separate walks in the morning. I stopped en route at My Boy Blue for a hot chocolate and a cinnamon bun.

We decided to drive out Slea Head Drive and have lunch at a pub we like in Baile na nGall (Ballydavid). It’s been closed the last few times we have been there. Guess what? It was closed. So we decided to try Quinns in Ceann Tra (Ventry). No food until 5:30 PM. So went to Páidi Ó Sé’s (Paddy O’Shea’s). He was a legendary Irish football player from Ventry. We saw him out and about in Dingle several times on previous trips. (Mianne and Bill might remember eating in his pub when they visited us in Dingle years back.) Alas, he died young in 2012, reportedly of a heart attack although his prodigious drinking didn’t help him to a long life either. Lunch was fine. The pub is full of sports memorabilia and pictures of the famous who have visited. Oddly, the pub now seems to be an enclave for French speakers. Amongst the pictures of visiting sports stars is one of John Havlicek who just died a few weeks ago. Havlicek and his family lived in Melrose for years, and his daughter went to Lincoln Elementary, the same school I attended.

Click on the galleries below to bring up scrollable windows with full size pictures – the gallery previews show just thumbnails of the pictures

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Ooops, the picture is of Larry Bird, of course. I had John Havlicek on my mind. Sorry bout that.

Saturday was bright and sunny when we arose. Our cleaners are coming in at 10:00 to do some housekeeping. We will be out and about once they arrive.

We started by visiting the mass grave behind the Dingle Hospital that I told you about. This was a desolate site that was almost inaccessible until a few years ago when a philanthropist decided it should be resurrected and preserved. The old chapel, long buried in bush and gorse, was uncovered and rehabilitated. It’s a quite moving and quite sad site with views to amaze.

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Then we drove 15 miles to Minard Castle, a little known site that we haven’t visited since 2000. Again, the area is beautiful. The castle isn’t much, but it’s been there since the 16th century. There is also a holy well nearby that John the Baptist visited. Locals come to the well to tie ribbons on a tree as a prayer for someone who needs one. We chatted with a woman from nearby Anascual who was there to tie a ribbon.

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Then it was home for sandwiches and a brief rest. Back in the car and we drove to Bin Beel, a small beach close to Dingle town. We walked the cliffs to the Lighthouse very close to the Tower that we visited the other day at the entrance to Dingle Harbor. The tourist boats on Fungie the Dolphin watch were trolling around the harbor below us.

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Then it was home for cocktails in the beautiful sun and a dinner of pies (lamb for me, chicken and leek for Elaine, that we bought yesterday at the Dingle farmer’s market. All in all, a perfect “10” day in every respect.

An aside: at the Farmer’s Market we met Trevis Gleason, an American who now resides in Dingle and is a well known author and chef. We chatted and discovered that on his first stay in Dingle (in 2004) he stayed in a stone cottage on Conor Pass Road. He rented from Tom and Veronica, a well known local couple known for various and sundry notorious tactics in promoting their properties and B&B’s. His experience in the cottage was like ours. When we arrived (in 2000), we spent two full days cleaning to make the place habitable for our six-week stay. We all had some good chuckles over the experience.

Tomorrow (Sunday) we’re off to Limerick for an overnight, and we pick up friends Bob and Barbara at 6:00 AM on Monday at Shannon Airport. Back at ya on Monday or Tuesday.