Ireland Travel Diary: Killarney and County Kerry

The drive to Killarney is about 3.5 hours from Dublin, but once again it is a gorgeous drive. To break up the drive a little, we made a stop at Blarney Castle. That’s where I kissed the Blarney Stone to receive the Gift of Gab. That was a fun experience, but I will go into more detail on The Blarney Castle in a post dedicated to just the castle. After The Blarney Castle, we headed straight to Killarney and got settled into our hotel.

Kissing the Blarney Stone

Food in Killarney

We had heard about a really great ice cream place in Killarney called Murphys Ice Cream. A couple of the girls and I walked into town to find it. As we were walking up to the door, the lights went off and they closed for the night. We were so heartbroken, and couldn’t believe they had closed. But our group was meeting soon to go to a few pubs in town, so we decided to walk around the town a little.

As we walked by a pub, we heard some great music and went in for a drink and to listen. The music in Ireland is so good and I really enjoyed just being able to sit in a pub on any night of the week while listening to some great musicians.

Nightlife in Killarney

We met our tour group at a pub called The Shire, which is a Lord of the Rings style pub. It was really cute, and the themed drinks were awesome! After The Shire, we headed to the Killarney Grand Hotel that had both a pub and a nightclub. That night The Kilkennys were performing, and they were amazing! Definitely my favorite Irish band that I’ve seen while in Ireland!

Women’s Christmas

The night that we went out to The Grand was January 6^th, and I learned of an Irish Tradition that I will be starting when I get married. It is called Woman’s Christmas, and every year on January 6^th, the woman go out for the night, and the men stay home and take down all of the Christmas decorations. How fun is that?!

It was weird because being from America, our group wasn’t sure what was going on, but the band kept saying Merry Christmas, and the pub we were at was packed with all women, some of them were even dressed in Santa hats and Christmas outfits.

Ireland National Park

The next day we went for a horse and carriage ride through the National Park. The scenery was gorgeous, and I was able to get some incredible photos, all of them without needing any editing!

After our carriage ride, we went on a bus tour of the Ring of Kerry. It was a 112 mile drive that also had spectacular views, and made a stop in Glenbeigh to visit a Bog Village. I truly find it amazing how there are so many historical buildings and villages still perfectly intact all around Ireland.

We ended our time in Killarney with a fun ghost bus tour, and then once again headed to a pub to enjoy the night with some great music!