Rick Steves Best of Ireland by Rick Steves & Pat O’Connor

Author:Rick Steves & Pat O’Connor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Avalon Publishing
Published: 2016-03-02T16:00:00+00:00

35.6 km: At the big building (with the camping sign), make a hard right up the long lane bordered by hedges. To park for free near the Gallarus Oratory, continue along this lane (between the dashed lines) for a quarter-mile, to a five-car parking lot—which occasionally fills up (be prepared to cooperate with other drivers exiting this small lot). From the free parking lot, a sign points you up the fuchsia-hedge-lined path leading you to the oratory (about 100 yards away).

Gallarus Oratory

If, however, you don’t mind paying €3 to park, veer left just at the start of the hedge-lined lane into a large paved parking area. Nearby is a small visitors center with a coffee shop, WC, and video theater. I prefer to park for free in the small lot (especially since it’s closer to the oratory). But many will appreciate the large lot, handy WC, and informative 17-minute video overview of the Dingle Peninsula’s historic sights (daily 9:00-20:00, Oct-April until 19:00, tel. 066/915-5333). This visitors center is the business initiative of a man who simply owns the adjacent land—not the oratory. If you park in his lot, you’ll have to pay the fee, even if you skip the facilities and walk up the public right-of-way lane.

The Gallarus Oratory, built about 1,300 years ago, is one of Ireland’s best-preserved early Christian churches. Shaped like an upturned boat, its finely fitted dry-stone walls are still waterproof. Lower your head (notice how thick the walls are), walk inside, and give your eyes a moment to adjust to the low light. A simple, small arched window offers scant daylight to the opposite wall, where the altar would have stood. Picture the interior lit by candles during medieval monastic services. It would have been tough to fit more than about a dozen monks inside (especially if they decided to do jumping jacks). Notice the holes once used to secure covering at the door, and the fine alternating stonework on the corners.

From the oratory, return to the main road and continue, following the brown Ceann Sléibhe/Slea Head Drive signs. If instead you continue up the narrow lane from the free parking lot, you’ll end up on R-559 (a shortcut to Dingle that misses the Kilmalkedar Church ruins).

37.7 km: Bear right at the fork and immediately take a right at the next fork. Here you leave the Slea Head Drive and head for Dingle (10 km away) by staying on R-559 (do not follow Slea Head Drive from this point onward).

39.5 km: The ruined church of Kilmalkedar (Cill Mhaoil-cheadair, on the left) was the Norman center of worship for this end of the peninsula. It was built when England replaced the old monastic settlements in an attempt to centralize their rule. The 12th-century Irish Romanesque church is surrounded by a densely populated graveyard (which has risen noticeably above the surrounding fields over the centuries). In front of the church, you’ll find the oldest medieval tombs, a stately early Christian cross (substantially buried by the rising graveyard and therefore oddly proportioned), and a much older ogham stone.

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