ireland - day 7

after a good night's sleep at ballyseede, we were up bright and early for breakfast and more travel. i will say that the food was slightly lackluster that morning, but we did only have the continental buffet. we were also seated with two couples from oregan, i think. i guess i was slightly annoyed at that-- i'm not much for conversation that early in the morning ;-)

anyhoo, after leaving breakfast, we headed out to travel the dingle peninsula. we decided to start our very windy day in dingle. we had hoped to try driving connor's pass (an especially treacherous yet gorgeous stretch of road along the way) unfortunately, with the wind shaking the car as much as it did on the highway we decided to pass on that experience for this trip.



in our trip around the dingle peninsula, we followed rick steve's ireland guide in which he gives a kilometer by kilometer guide of the peninsula and its sites. i highly recommend this route. we saw some amazing views and stopped at several areas to see the sites along the way. it took us a few hours including the stops, but eventually we ended up back in dingle for a late lunch. we ended up eating at marina inn. the warm food and beverages were just what we needed after a blustery day. with our stomachs full we headed out for a long drive up to the shannon region where we checked in to our last hotel, dromoland castle.

the castle and grounds are immense and stunning. if you have the means and the opportunity, i highly recommend you look into the castle for accomodations. our room was enormous and filled with charm. the castle grounds have several restaurants, a gift shop (with several lovely pieces of waterford), and a golf course. the staff are sooo friendly and no request is too much. i'm glad we decided to splurge for our last two nights and enjoy all that dromoland has to offer.