Kenmare, Ireland - April 26th to 28th, 2025

Kenmare is a small town along the Ring of Kerry, a scenic drive around the Iveragh Peninsula on the west coast of Ireland. It was a great base for exploring the nearby Killarney National Park as well as being a nice little village to explore.

Saturday we drove from Kilkenny to Kenmare, both in Ireland. It was a warm, sunny day for a change. Along the way we stopped at the Muckross House in Killarney National Park. Our only other stop was in Rathmore for gas. At the Apple Green service station, you pump the gas first, then go inside to pay. There was a self-service machine inside the convenience store to pay. We forgot to look to see if there were squeegees available to clean the windshield. Ann regretted that later as she tried to take photos of the gorgeous scenery of Killarney National Park through a dirty windshield.

It was about a three hour drive to reach Muckross House from Kilkenny. We arrived around 1:30 pm and headed straight for the cafe. The cafe was a cafeteria style place, with hot and cold menu items. We opted for a quick lunch of cold sandwiches and potato chips. The food was decent and it kept our tummies from growling.

The Muckross House is a tutor style home built in 1843. It was owned by several different families over the years and Queen Victoria visited the home in 1861. The house and estate was donated to Ireland in 1932, becoming the first National Park in the Republic of Ireland.

We opted for the combination ticket for both the Muckross House and the Muckross Traditional Farms. The staff at the ticket counter said to allow at least two hours to tour both, which was exactly how much time we had.

We spent about half an hour touring the inside of the house. It was furnished with mostly original items from the 19th century. The tour included not only the lavish rooms that the families lived in, but also the servants’ quarters downstairs.

Then we walked over to the Muckross Traditional Farms. The farms consists of a gravel road that circles around for about a kilometer (0.6 miles) that leads you to about half a dozen or so farm buildings. Most of the buildings are replicas of real buildings from the area, before electricity. The buildings included a house on a small farm, a labourer’s cottage, a house from a medium size farm, a house from a large farm, a carpenter’s workshop, a harness maker and saddler workshop, a blacksmith’s forge, and a schoolhouse.

In addition to the buildings, which were furnished with period furniture, there were tools, machinery, and farm animals all about.

Most of the buildings had a fire going in their fireplaces, fueled by a combination of wood and turf (dried peat moss). Staff members were in most of the buildings. You could sample Irish soda bread in both the small and medium farm houses. In the small house, the bread was made in a frying pan with a lid, on top of the fire. The bread made in the medium farm house was made on top of a griddle hanging above the fire. You can tell the difference between the two breads.

The bread was served with butter, made at the large farm house. A staff member was at the large farm house, rolling butter into balls with two wooden paddles. She had already hand-turned the butter before we arrived.

A blacksmith was giving demonstrations at the forge. It was amazing how he could make such fine details in the metal. He was working on a decorative bird’s head while we were there.

It took us about an hour and a half to make our way around the farms. Then it was time to continue our drive to Kenmare. The drive was spectacular, through the Killarney National Park. The road is winding and narrow. Ann had troubles getting nice pictures as we rode along because most of the views were out the far side of the car.

We arrived at Rockcrest B&B in Kenmare just before 5 pm. John, the owner of the B&B, was very friendly and showed us our room.The landscaping out front is spectacular and our room was large and comfortable. They also had a sitting room available on the ground floor.

For dinner, we went with one of John’s recommendations, the Brewhouse. It was just a short five minute walk from the B&B. Keith ate the grilled salmon while Ann had a venison burger. Since Keith had two pints of beer the night before, he opted for the non-alcoholic ginger beer with dinner while Ann just had water.

Sunday we explored the town of Kenmare. First we had a nice breakfast at the B&B. They serve a full Irish breakfast, but we don’t like to eat that much in the morning. Keith normally doesn’t eat breakfast at all, just coffee. So we both had fresh fruit and yogurt along with brown bread and toast. Ann added two fried eggs. We’ve noticed that the fried eggs in England and Ireland so far don’t have brown crispy edges. We believe they fry them in butter with low heat and perhaps cover them with a lid.

Before lunch, we strolled the streets of town. We started our stroll by checking out Cromwell’s Bridge, then headed into the old town area. Cromwell’s Bridge is a steep arch stone bridge over the River Finnihy dating back to the 1700’s. It looks too steep to be useful, but perhaps the earth was graded differently up to the bridge back when it was still in use.

N71 splits into one way streets in town, forming a triangle. The shops, restaurants and bars are along two of the legs of the triangle, Main Street and Henry Street. Just before the split is another small triangle formed by East Park Lane and Park Place. There is a nice little city park inside the smaller triangle.

At the end of Main Street is the Park Hotel and Reenagross Woodland Park. After wandering the streets in town, we walked the trails in the woodland park. The park sits on Kenmare Bay. It was low tide, so the bay was mostly mud. The trails lead out to the end of a little peninsula. They were a nice combination of woods and open views out across the bay.

Then we made our way back to the other side of town to check out the Ancient Stone Circle. The stone circle dates back to the Bronze Age (2,200 to 500 B.C.). The circle is actually an egg shape, with a boulder dolmen in the center, believed to be a burial site. The stone circle is on private land, so there is a small fee of 2.50 euros to visit it.

Next to the circle are hawthorn trees. Irish folklore says the hawthorn tree has magical powers. At the ticket booth, they give you a little tag with a string so you can write your own little wish and hang it in the hawthorn fairy tree.

Now it was time for lunch. We chose O’Donnabhan’s restaurant. It was a nice day, so we took a table out back in their beer garden. Both of us had the leek and potato soup with brown bread and butter. The soup was tasty, but the brown bread didn’t seem very fresh, as it was rather dry.

On our way out, we used the bathrooms. Instead of rolls of toilet paper, the toilet paper was in sheets that you pull out of a dispenser, sort of like some paper towel dispensers. We’ve seen that a few times so far in Europe.

On the way back to our B&B, we stopped at Kenmare Ice Cream for dessert. It may have been a little cool outside, but there is never a bad time to have ice cream. At least, that is our philosophy!

We hung out in our room until dinner time. Just before dinner, we walked the trails again in Reenagross Woodland Park. This time it was high tide, so the bay was full of water. We had to deviate from our previous route, as one of the trails was under water.

For dinner, we went back to the Brewhouse. It was 6 pm and the live music was starting at the Brewhouse. We were planning to go to Coachman’s, but their music didn’t start for another hour. The music wasn’t traditional Irish, but a nice selection of jazz music. The band was a duo, with one playing folk guitar and the other alternating among saxophone, flute, and vocals. They were very entertaining.

Ann had the chicken supreme special while Keith had the chicken pie special with chips (fries). The chicken supreme was half a chicken stuffed with dressing along with mashed potatoes and vegetables with gravy. Keith skipped the beer again and we both had a non-alcoholic ginger beer.

Ann even had room for dessert this time. She chose the chocolate brownie. It was served with a chocolate icing and a small scoop of vanilla ice cream. It was tasty, but it still wasn’t what we would call a brownie in the States. Most of the brownies we’ve had so far in Europe are more like cake, not quite as dense or chewy as most of the brownies we are used to.

After another nice breakfast at Rockcrest B&B Monday morning, we drove back up through Killarney National Park to the Muckross House. From there we went on a hike, the Torc Waterfall Loop. The route in AllTrails basically followed the Red Trail, the longest of the three routes.

It started by the Muckross House and went over to Lake Muckross. Then it followed the shoreline before crossing the road. After paralleling the road for a kilometer or two, it makes a sharp turn to ascend part way up Torc Mountain. Then it descends back down to the Torc Waterfall before completing the loop near the lake.

However, when we reached the sharp turn, there was a sign saying the trail was closed due to unsafe conditions. Bummer! So we turned around and started heading back the way we came. After about half a kilometer, we came across a local who was out for a run. She assured us that the trail was indeed open. The signs were from a previous weather event, but the trail was now open again. So we turned around again and headed back to the sharp turn.

At the turn, the trail makes most of its elevation gain in about half a kilometer. It is a steep, long climb up rocky steps. Be sure to stop every now and then and look behind you for a great view out over the lake. You can use that as an excuse to catch your breath.

There were also some great views along the relatively flat portion and the less steep descent. Be sure to follow the loop in the counter-clockwise direction, as they want the traffic to only flow in one direction up the steep steps. However, we only saw one other couple during that whole section of the trail. Perhaps it was due to the sign that said it was closed and it was a Monday instead of the weekend.

However, once we reached the bridge crossing the River Owangariff, there were a lot of people, since the trail is easily accessible from a car park (parking lot) about a kilometer away. Then there were even more people at the Torc Waterfall, which is even closer to the car park. The waterfall is pretty impressive.

After the car park, it was a pretty easy walk from there back to the Muckross House. We did see some wildlife along the way, like deer and a heron. The trail is paved at this point. The paved trail is used by pedestrians, cyclists, and jaunting cars (horse-drawn carriages). It seems like riding in a jaunting car is a very popular activity in the area. There was a constant stream of them passing by us.

By the time we returned to our car, we covered 10.6 kilometers (6.6 miles) with an elevation gain of 470 meters (1542 feet) in three and a half hours. That included over a kilometer of backtracking. It was hike number 8 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2025.

After our hike, we went to the cafeteria for a late lunch. This time we both got a pre-packaged garden salad. Keith also had a bread roll with butter while Ann chose a scone. The garden salad was nice. It was what the Germans would call a gemischter Salat. In addition to mixed greens and raw vegetables, there was a scoop of potato salad and a scoop of grilled veggies with beans and some kind of seasonings.

On the way back to Kenmare, we stopped at the Kissane Sheep Farm for their Sheep Dog Demonstration. Their demonstrations are at different times on different days, so you have to check their website. On this day, they had two demonstrations, one at 14:00 (2 pm) and another at 16:00 (4 pm). You just need to show up about ten to 15 minutes ahead of time and pay the fee (10 euros per adult).

We arrived at just a little past 3 pm, which was way early for the 4 pm demo. We found a bench where we could sit in the sun, soaking up the rays and giving some love to one of their friendly cats.

When a tour bus arrived, we followed the group over to where they were showing everyone some lambs. Ann even held one of them.

For the demo, we walked over to a viewing area overlooking a fenced-in pasture. The farm is located in the mountains, so it is pretty rough terrain. The sheepherder controlled one dog with both voice commands and a whistle, directing the dog to round out the sheep and eventually brought them into the small corral in front of us. We learned that each dog is trained with a different set of commands and different whistles, so they only respond to the commands intended for each individual dog.

They start training the dogs at 6 months of age and they are fully trained by a year and a half. They become attached to the sheepherder who trains them, and won’t respond to anyone else. The training starts with voice commands, then moves on to whistle commands, which can carry over longer distances.

Because the Kissane Sheep Farm is in a mountainous area, they only raise Backfaced Mountain Sheep. It is the only breed that does well in the terrain and climate of the Kissane Sheep Farm. Unfortunately, they have a coarse wool which is not valued anymore. They still need to sheer the sheep to keep them healthy, but they bury the wool because no one will buy it. The farm makes money by selling the male lambs for meat, sheep dog demonstrations, and payments from the European Union to keep the vegetation in check in the mountains by the grazing sheep. It seems a shame that they can’t find a use for the wool.

Back in Kenmare, we walked into town for dinner after taking showers. This time we ate at the bar at the Coachman’s. We arrived at 6 pm and traditional music started at 7 pm, so we ate slowly. Ann had the meatballs and pasta, while Keith had their fish cakes.

To make the meal last longer, we had dessert. Ann had the banoffee pie while Keith had the Bailey cheesecake. Banoffee pie is a British dessert, consisting of thick caramel (toffee), bananas, and whipped cream in a pie shell. It was pretty tasty.

The music started promptly at 7 pm. It was a soloist who sang and played the harmonica in addition to playing an acoustic guitar. We enjoyed the music until 8 pm. Keith had a second Coachman’s Summer Ale while Ann slowly sipped on her Cronins cider.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Kenmare. If the rest of the Ring of Kerry is this nice, we were in for a treat. We were excited to see what else the Iveragh Peninsula had in store for us.

Check out our related video: Kenmare, Ireland

(Ann)