Kenmare, ROI

The first leg of our journey in ROI, we stayed for 8 nights in a holiday let about 12 miles west of Kenmare on the Beara Peninsula. We drove into Kenmare almost every day, either for sight-seeing, groceries, internet, eating out, or some combo of those activities. The roads being what they are down in ROI, the 12 miles took a bit over 20 minutes. We really liked Kenmare - it was a cute, quaint, sorta touristy town. It is just off of the Ring of Kerry (future post), so it sees its fair share of tourists. In fact, I think that if we had been visiting in the summer, we might have not been that impressed. But, off-season, we liked the feel of the place. It was small enough that we could walk the town easily, but large enough to have a good-size grocery and some really good restaurants.

Looking down one of the three 1-way  streets that make up the Kenmare triangle.
Mulcahy's is on the right. Imagine the traffic in the summer?

For eateries, our favorite lunch place was Jam (http://www.jam.ie/), where we tasted great quiches, salads, breads, and savory pies, as well as yummy desserts. Our favorite dinner was BY FAR Mulcahy's (http://kenmarerestaurants.com/mulcahys/main.html), where even Watson was amazed - he is STILL talking about his pasta sauce from there! We also enjoyed the little town green, wandered the farmer's market, saw part of a bike race, and visited the playground (twice) and the library. Although we didn't buy much in the way of souvenirs in town, there were some cute shops including a bike and toy shop that Watson liked and a book store where we bought my Mom a 'Wildlife of the British Isles' book. Here's a map of the town with a few things marked on it.

We also visited three neat sites in the town. Amy and Kevin told us about Cromwell's Bridge, and it was really cool!

Great selfie!

The egg-shaped stone circle (Druid's Circle) right near the centre of town was one of my favorites (we saw many) from the entire trip - probably ranked #2, just behind another on the Beara Peninsula (future post).

Finally, we enjoyed a nice walk at a park in town - Reenagross Woodland Park. Unfortunately, you'll notice our hats...it was pretty cold and windy that day! But, you might also notice that Jubin's sporting our new, fancy backpack for Jamieson - 3rd one's a charm (especially when it is brand new and expensive!). The other disappointing thing about this visit was that the Park was supposed to be home to lots of wildlife, but it appeared that the town was doing some major land management, getting ready for the summer, so nothing was around. But, on our way in, Watson made fast friends with a nice dog who tirelessly played fetch with him for at least 10 minutes straight. Cute!

Our only wildlife that day - snails and flowers. 

We also really liked the butcher in town (great pork shoulder for Easter dinner!), the organic grocer (2 rubber balls later...), Bookstop Cafe (vegetarian, organic lunch spot), the tourist info centre, and the small hardware store (Hallisey's). We'd go back to Kenmare (http://kenmare.com/information/)!