Strumming, Running and Sunning: IRELAND and SCOTLAND - Day 6

NO TORC, NO SLEA HEAD PENINSULA, NO PROBLEM - Day 6 - October 6, 2023

Yesterday’s rain and wind were still at it this morning. Having finally dried out our clothes overnight, we decided not to take the short hike to nearby Torc Falls.

Instead, we set a course for Dingle Town on the Dingle Peninsula. This is the starting point for the famous Slea Head scenic loop drive.

Just under two hours later, we hit the little town of Dingle and jumped onto the Slea Head road. All morning we had rain and low clouds. As we went up and over the hills, the rain stopped, but the clouds became a dense fog.

A few miles up the road from Dingle, we realized that visibility would not improve. So, we turned around and spent an hour or so walking around Dingle.

In hindsight, this change in plans helped us since we had about a 3.5 hour expected drive to Galway ahead of us. We drove for miles on narrow winding roads through several small villages where the buildings were so close to the road that people coming out their front doors were stepping right into the street.

One of these little villages is Castlemaine. It claims to be the birthplace of the ‘Wild Colonial Boy’, who is the subject of a famous traditional folk tune (you can see a version of this performed by The Clancy Brothers on YouTube). According to the song, the protagonist was born in Castlemaine. I suppose every town needs a noteworthy native son - even if he’s a fictional and tragic character.

On the subject of tragic characters, we passed through the village of Blennerville. Blennerville was, during the 19th century, a launching point for Irish emigrants from the Kerry area who wanted to escape famine and travel to North America.

When you drive along Tralee Bay, you suddenly see a huge white windmill looming on the shoreline. This is not the modern electricity-generating type of turbine. It’s the old fashioned kind.

The windmill was built in 1800. There is a story that the wife of the windmill’s owner climbed up to the upper deck of the mill one day in 1804 and was killed instantly when she was struck by one of the mill’s rotating sails. She was not subsequently memorialized in song, but at least the windmill (which was restored in the 1980’s) still stands where she fell.