Epic European Cycle : 2015-06-18 : Gap of Dunloe

Tip
Type Name Description Service Provider Cost Notes Actions
General Info Killarney National Park Map $0.00
Activity
Type Name Description Service Provider Cost Kms To Date Total Notes Actions
Sight See Ross Castle $0.00 Our tour of Gap of Dunloe started here
Tour Gap of Dunloe Bus and Boat Tour Gap of Dunloe Tours $75.00
Accommodation
Type Name Service Provider Confirmation Location Cost Notes Actions
Hostel Paddy's Palace Hostel World Killarney $120.00 2 nights. $60/night. Incl breakfast.
Real dumpy hostel. Poorly maintained, lumpiest bed ever. Disinterested staff.


Trip Log

Notes Actions
When we got up this morning, it looked like the weather was going to be pretty good for the day, so we booked ourselves into a tour of Gap of Dunloe. The tour included bus from Killarney to Ross Castle, then a boat from Ross Castle into Killarney National Park (about a 1.5 hour boat ride). Most people opted to pay extra to ride the Gap in a horse-drawn carriage. Brent and I chose the option to walk the Gap instead. It's about 12km, up over the Gap with a gain of about 170m. They drop you off at the start at about 12:30, and the carriages come to pick folks up at about 1:30 (after lunch). Brent and I snarfed lunch to get a head start on our walk back, as the bus returns to pick you up at the far end, departing at 4PM. We got on the road at 1:00, so we had three hours to walk the 12km. I hoofed it the whole way because 3 hours is fairly aggressive for me to do 12km. We ended up making it in 2.5 hours, which is the projected time allotment. Yay me! The weather was absolutely glorious. Dare I hope for more of the same tomorrow so we can do a bus tour of Ring of Kerry?
I bought a lovely new green merino sweater from Quills in Killarney. Said thanks and so long to the nasty old sweater.
From Brent: "The first National Park (Killarney) in Ireland butts up against the town. We took a day trip through it on our first day. Bus to Ross Castle (the last castle to fall to the British in the war of colonization), boat across 3 lakes, then hike through The gap of Dunloe (7 miles) to a pub where we got picked up for a bus trip back to town. The scenery was great with Rhododendrons blooming on the hills and assorted stone ruins on some of the lake islands. There are supposed to be deer in the park but we didn't see any. We did see a pair of wild goats while walking The Gap, a sight that we hadn't been told to watch for. The whole thing was about 7 hours and though we were told to be prepared for rain at any time it was sunny all day and I got a bit of a burn."


Photos