after lunch in Killarney, we decided to drive around the Ring of Kerry. this resulted in some very scary moments facing down oncoming coaches, but it also provided us with two spectacular destinations, the first of which was Torc Waterfall. the Owengarriff River flows through the Friar’s Glen from the “Devil’s Punch Bowl” and falls 18 metres. (the first picture is at the top of the falls; the second, at the bottom.) initially we didn’t intend to go all the way to the top, but it’s only 70 vertical feet and took us about 15 minutes to get to the top — very much worth the time effort.
the Kerry Way crosses across the top of the waterfall. there are signposted walks all over Ireland, and this is one of the longest at 215 kilometers. it roughly follows the driving route around the Ring of Kerry, and begins and ends in Killarney. we didn’t see anyone who looked like they were doing the hike, but we did our trek rather later in the day (about 3 pm)
another popular attraction near Muckross House (just down the road from the Torc Waterfall) are the “jaunting cars”, or horse-drawn buggies that will take you through the gardens of Muckross House and along this stretch of road. mostly, it was a lot of fun to say “hey, look, it’s a jaunting car.”
