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Beaches – The Dingle Peninsula has gorgeous beaches,
miles of white sand with clear, sparkling aquamarine water. Brandon Beach, Wine Strand, the Maharees Beach has swimming and are great
for families. Clogher Beach has no swimming, but it's a great place
to play, look for fossils in the cliffs or fly kites. Inch Beach is a long, long beach that seems to go on forever, with views of Dingle
Bay and the Ring of Kerry. |
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Dingle town – |
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Dingle is a charming town and you'll want to walk around
the harbor, dotted with fishing boats and sail boats. Stop into one
of the local restaurants for a delicious fresh fish or seafood lunch. |
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 Boat
trip to see the "Dingle Dolphin" – Dingle Harbor is home
to "Fungie," an adorable wild bottlenose dolphin. In all weather,
you can see the Dingle Dolphin playing, leaping, having a good time in the
harbor. Boat trips leave from Dingle Harbor, daily, all year round. |
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Dingle
Oceanworld Aquarium – The Dingle Oceanworld Aquarium is a wonderful
way to experience the marine life of the Irish coast. Walk through an ocean
tunnel filled with eels and ocean fish. At the Touch Pools, feel nubby starfish
and silky rays, and search for camouflaged flatfish in the sand. In another
tank, check out the marine life of Dingle Harbor – sea bass, wrassse,
spider crabs, dog fish and rays. |
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Horseback riding – The Dingle Peninsula is the perfect
place for a ride on the sandy beach or trail rides on green, green hillsides.
Long's Horseriding Centre in Ventry has horses suitable for kids and rides
for families. Click
here for more information. |
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Dunbeg Promontory Fort (Slea Head) – If you were going to
build a defensive fort that was hard to get to, Dunbeg (Dun Beag) is it.
Surrounded on three sides by sheer cliffs and the ocean, this Iron Age
stone fort was protected by four lines of dirt banks, then a rampart with
an entrance and two guard chambers, leading to a single large beehive
hut. Just imagine the sentries 1500 years ago, huddled in the beehive
hut, cooking their supper over an open fire, the wind howling outside. |
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Irish Famine Center (Slea Head) –
Step into 1845, a mud and stone cottage. Check out the kitchen with iron
kettles hanging in the open fireplace, as well as the small hovel for a
peasant farmer. Alongside the house is a small stone beehive hut for pigs,
and in the fields up the hill there's a bunch of fun farm animals – horses, cows, red deer, pigs, goats, donkeys and sheep. |
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Beehive Huts (Slea Head ) – The beehive huts may look like
a big beehive, but there's no bees here – these ancient stone huts
were part of an enclosed farmstead, inhabited for centuries until 1200
AD. Stone walls around the huts were designed to keep out cattle raiders,
and the huts themselves are constructed completely of smallish stones,
using no mortar. The huts are perfect for kids, and you can get plenty
of ideas for building your own stone forts at home. |
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Blasket Island boat trip (Dunquin) –
For an scenic boat ride, take a trip to Great Blasket Island. Once inhabited,
the island is now deserted, but you'll enjoy exploring the untouched white
sand beaches and crumbling stone houses – bring a picnic. On the way
to the island, look for sea birds, seals, and sometimes you'll spot a pod
of whales. Boat trips to the island are contingent upon good weather and
ocean conditions. Boats leave from Dunquin (Dun Chaoin) pier. |
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Visit a pottery workshop (Clogher Beach) – Stop into the Louis Mulcahy pottery workshop to find out how Irish
pottery is made, glazed and painted. In the visitor center, watch a professional
potter at work, and best of all, kids can try their hand at making a pot
themselves. |
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Gallurus Oratory (Ballyferriter) –
It's hard to believe that this pristine stone building is over 1000 years
old, one of the best preserved Christian churches in Ireland. It's even
more impressive when you step inside – all those stones are sticking
together without any mortar. |
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Brendan Creek – A crystal clear creek
bubbles down to the sea, and according to legend, this is where St. Brendan
set out on his seven year journey to discover the isles of paradise, but
ended up in North America instead. It's a lovely spot, and easy to envision
Brendan plunking his coracle into the sea. (Note: this is not the only locale
in Ireland that claims to be Brendan's departure point.) |
