Ireland Campervan Trip — Day 13: Muckross, Torc Waterfall and the Ring of Kerry

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Creveen Campsite

We woke up to mist. The skies were clear when we went to clean our teeth at the community hut last night, but it’s looking decidedly damp for today.

Ollie parked on a grassy pitch at Creveen Lodge in the morning mist — A misty morning at Creveen Lodge Caravan and Camping Park

Creveen to Kenmare

The road from Creveen to Kenmare is technically still on the Beara Peninsula, so not the Ring of Kerry. But the scenery is still jaw-dropping.

A calm inlet backed by wooded hills on the road to Kenmare — Waterside scenery between Creveen and Kenmare

We’re clearly in tourist-ville now. Even as we got to Kenmare and drove through the town it was clear we were now on the Ring of Kerry tourist trail. This isn’t The Tower of London sort of busy, but it is bustling.

We’ll be coming back to Kenmare, both in this literarily and physically, as we’re staying there this evening.

From Kenmare to Muckross on the Ring of Kerry Loop

The roads are winding, narrow and much busier than we’ve experienced elsewhere. Still nowhere near what you’d call busy in the UK (even for the North Yorkshire Moors where we were a few weeks ago).

A misty mountain valley seen from the road between Kenmare and Muckross — View from the van on the road from Kenmare to Muckross

Moll’s Gap

There also aren’t that many places to stop and take a piccie. But one stopping place, with a café and probably a tat shop, is at Moll’s Gap.

You go up and up and up until you get to a gap in the peak of a hill / mountain. As you pass through the gap there’s a building and car park to stop at. Not much more than 20 parking spaces, but we found enough room to park the van.

The views down to the north are stunning.

The N71 winding through rocky mountains near Moll's Gap — The mountain road at Moll’s Gap

The road descending from Moll's Gap beneath low cloud — Looking north from Moll’s Gap

Ladies View

As we bimbled down the hill again there’s a lake view that everyone seems to stop at: Ladies View. As you come down from Moll’s Gap there’s a dozen or so parking spaces and a walk out to a viewing area.

Both times we went by this place there was a 50-odd-seater bus parked across six parking bays.

The Lakes of Killarney beneath low cloud, viewed from Ladies View — View over the Lakes of Killarney from Ladies View

Then as you carry on further there’s a cafe and some more parking areas, but none were big enough for the van. That’s ok, we got probably the best view where we stopped anyway.

Towards the end of this leg of the RoK there’s a short tunnel cut into the hillside. Room for only one lane, this could be a choke point if we came across a bus. There’s a better picture of it further down this post when we return.

Muckross House

Muckross House, its gardens and the surrounding estate lie at the heart of Killarney National Park, about 6 km south of Killarney town.

This is a big affair. They get a lot of visitors to Muckross. The car park was large (and free, of course) and the café is one of those high-throughput affairs (that isn’t actually that fast).

Cafe: Sue was not happy with the coffee being from a machine and the queues meant she couldn’t get a coffee when she wanted to. I was happy with a chicken salad and a macaroon!

The café was odd in many ways. It was set up for high throughput, but the staff were doing all sorts of chores for the punters that slowed everything down — getting coffees when you’re supposed to get them from a machine yourself, and taking food from the buffet to the tables. It was all very friendly, but it took a very long time to get served.

We went round the house, but not in that way… we went around the house, on the outside, to start our walk to the Torc Waterfalls.

Muckross House viewed across its formal gardens — Muckross House in Killarney National Park

Torc Waterfall

Everywhere around the Muckross estate were jaunting cars, the local horse-drawn carriages. Very touristy. We didn’t partake.

A horse-drawn jaunting car beside Muckross Lake — A jaunting car carrying visitors around the Muckross estate

The woman in the tourist office had said it was 20 minutes to the waterfall car park. She was probably right, and it wasn’t that bad a walk to the base of the falls, where everyone was taking photos.

The falls were nice, but a long, long way from being in full flow.

A shaded stream flowing through woodland near Torc Waterfall — Woodland stream on the walk to Torc Waterfall

Water tumbling over rocks in the forest below Torc Waterfall — The stream below Torc Waterfall

Torc Waterfall glimpsed through the surrounding trees — Approaching Torc Waterfall through the woodland

Torc Waterfall cascading down a rocky, wooded hillside — Torc Waterfall in Killarney National Park

Then we decided to carry on. The steps to the left of the falls looked like they went somewhere interesting. They didn’t really. That’s not to say the circular walk they led to wasn’t a nice walk through the woods, it was. But the steps went on and on and on and the view at the top was a bit of a non-event, in itself.

Stone steps climbing steeply through the woods beside Torc Waterfall — The steps above Torc Waterfall

We did review our decision to carry on up at about the halfway mark, but I thought there must be something worth seeing given all the effort that had gone into the steps. Bad choice.

Eventually we reached the top of the walk, where there was a bridge over the stream feeding the falls. A bit disappointing.

A stone footbridge crossing the stream above Torc Waterfall — The bridge over the stream above Torc Waterfall

At the top we asked a couple of women if the way onwards led back to the car park and, if so, whether it was any quicker than going back down the stepped route we’d already taken. They thought it was shorter to go back the way we came.

And then we walked back. Back to the base of the falls. Back through the Muckross estate…

(We also bumped into the two women from the top of the Torc walk. They came down “the long way” and beat us! We had a chat about the weather, etc.)

Muckross Lake and the mountains seen from the path to Torc Waterfall — View over Muckross Lake from the path to Torc Waterfall

A small sandy beach on the wooded shore of Muckross Lake — A beach on Muckross Lake

… back through the Muckross gardens and to the front of the house in front of the lake, where we collapsed on a bank for 10 minutes to get our breath.

We did look at the cafe again, but the queues were even longer.

Back at the van we had a sit down for 20 minutes and waited for the drizzle to stop. It started just as we got back to the van.

But we wanted one last visit on the Muckross estate: the abbey.

Muckross Abbey

So we got the bikes off the van and proceeded the wrong way around the bike loop to the Abbey. Nobody shouted at us, but as we progressed we became more and more aware that we were probably going the wrong way… ooops!

The Abbey was a great stop, not least for being number 10 on this tour’s derelict church count. But it has a very unique feature.

And not the three French guys sitting on the bench outside…

Three visitors sitting on a bench outside Muckross Abbey — Visitors resting outside Muckross Abbey

It’s the tree growing in the cloister…

An ancient yew tree growing in the centre of the Muckross Abbey cloister — The yew tree in the cloister at Muckross Abbey

Tradition says that the yew is as old as the abbey itself, although Heritage Ireland describes it as perhaps 400 years old. We could well believe it. And how did it survive when the abbey didn’t?

Muckross is technically a Franciscan friary, founded in 1448. It was sacked by Henry VII’s English forces in the late 16th century, and the Franciscans later returned. Cromwell’s New Model Army raided it in 1652, removed the roof and drove out the friars, after which it fell into ruin.

It has a vibrant churchyard though….

Old gravestones filling the churchyard at Muckross Abbey — The active graveyard among the ruins of Muckross Abbey

Muckross back to Kenmare

And then the trip back to the van on the bikes, going the right way around the bike loop this time — and avoiding the jaunting cars.

Then we had to make the journey back to Kenmare on the Ring of Kerry again. This was the exact route we’d taken in the morning. But we had paid for a spot on a newly opened aire in Kenmare and we hadn’t found anything to do that day between Creveen and Kenmare. So we decided to get ahead of ourselves, drive through Kenmare to Muckross House, and then drive back to Kenmare that evening.

We were a bit worried about this trip back, because everyone is keen to tell you that you shouldn’t drive the RoK clockwise in a larger vehicle. The roads are tight and tour coaches generally travel around the ring anti-clockwise, via Killorglin. Heading back from Muckross to Kenmare meant travelling clockwise and potentially meeting them on the narrowest sections.

There is another, much longer and “more main road” route from Muckross to Kenmare. We did consider going that way to avoid doing the RoK clockwise. But in the end we thought we’d risk it… what could go wrong? One campervan guidebook does actually say to do it clockwise, so you don’t get caught behind the buses.

We did see four buses as we drove back the “wrong” way, but in reality it wasn’t a problem with a van our size. If you’re in a motorhome, it might be a different story, but we were fine.

The N71 passing through a narrow, single-lane stone tunnel — The narrow tunnel between Muckross and Kenmare

The mountain road and parking area at Moll's Gap — Returning through Moll’s Gap on the Ring of Kerry

Kenmare

We’re staying at a new aire, run by Martin. I wish I’d got a picture of Martin.

The aire is smart with well tended shrubs and flowers. The gravel parking is pretty flat and there’s loads of space on each pitch. 10 pitches in total and he’d squeezed two more into unused areas this evening too.

Campervans parked on spacious gravel pitches at Kenmare Aire — The pitches and landscaped grounds at Kenmare Aire

We had quite a long chat with Martin at his stone-circle kiosk.

He’s been running this site for a few months. Cost him €70,000 to set up, so I hope it works out. It should do if you do the maths.

The aire is set up next to the existing Kenmare Stone Circle entrance.

At first glance, it all felt a bit Father Ted or, perhaps more accurately, Del Boy.

That first impression turned out to be unfair. The stone circle is on private land, and the Arthur family have been its custodians since the late 1980s. They developed the safe access and parking, maintain the grounds and ask for a small €2.50 admission fee, paid at the kiosk or honesty box, to help with the site’s upkeep. There are also some rather touristy wishing trees, with labels available from the kiosk.

Colourful wish labels tied to a tree beside Kenmare Stone Circle — A wishing tree at Kenmare Stone Circle

The low boulders of Kenmare Stone Circle surrounded by trees — Kenmare Stone Circle, a Bronze Age monument

Time for a Walk

After tea (a poor SuperValu Malaysian chicken pot and rice) we decided we’d better go for a walk around the town. We’re both feeling pretty pooped at the moment, so it’s a bit of a chore to get our ar**s in gear, but we rarely regret these discovery walks, and so it was this evening.

Kenmare is quite a bustling tourist town. There are far more pubs than there should be for such a small town. They were all very well frequented, especially considering its a Sunday, and almost all had seating out into the road.

We didn’t stop for a pint this evening.

Cars and visitors along Kenmare's colourful main street — An evening walk through Kenmare town centre

Colourful shopfronts and outdoor seating on a Kenmare street — Kenmare’s busy streets in the evening

And then we found the public loos next to the main town car park. Well… public loos in Ireland never cease to amaze. The gents were a pretty dire experience, though Sue said the ladies were better. But both were “clean” in that run-down, water-all-over-the-floor, paint-peeling, sink-in-the-men’s-pulled-off-the-wall sort of way. The loos themselves were clean, though, and there was decent loo paper, soap, water and a working hand dryer.

The aire doesn’t have facilities (Martin is working on it with the utility companies), so we availed ourselves of the public loos.

The main town car park opposite the church had a couple of “permanent” caravans in the middle with a genny running. There were also smart campervans there too — maybe they couldn’t get into the aire.

We then had a wander around Quills clothing store. Lots of expensive touristy woven ware.

Clothing displays inside Quills of Kenmare — Inside Quills clothing store in Kenmare

Tomorrow we head back through Muckross again (third time on this bit of the RoK) but this time we carry on with RoK and head over to “Ireland’s best campsite” near Valentia Island.

We also need to see if we can find some LPG to fill our gas up with. I had the heating on in the van last night and that may have hammered the gas. We’ll need to keep an eye on that if we’re going to do any winter trips in the van.