Gillick's World: Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way Re-published August 2015 | Page 23

After spending a day exploring the Doolin Cliff
Walk, my schedule suggested that I take the
Shannon Ferry from Killimer to Tarbert, and
then continue on to Dingle. However this was
the one day of my trip that the GPS decided to
stop talking to me. So, holding the GPS in my
left hand and the steering wheel in my right
hand, I drove through the darkness of a late
January afternoon, around some pretty hairy
“S” turns and hairpin turns, and eventually
arrived safe and sound in the town of Dingle.
Michael, one of the staff at Dingle Benners
Hotel not only parked my car for me, but figured
out why the GPS had stopped talking. (Was it
something I said to it?) I celebrated with a nice
cold Murphy’s beer, so my day ended on a fairly
positive note.
After a very comfortable night at the hotel and a
great breakfast buffet the next morning, I
wandered through Dingle and down to the
picturesque harbour—just as the sun was
rising— to take in the scenery. This was to be
the theme for the day as I soon discovered
when I met Pat Buckley from Granter Chauffeur
Drive, to explore the Slea Head Drive. I will say
right off that Pat is very personable as well as
serving as a font of knowledge about the area.
It was a pleasure to spend the time with him,
chatting, learning and taking in the incredible
surroundings. Ho hum… yet another amazing
day in Ireland!
The name “Dingle” derives from the Irish
“Daingean Uí Chúis”, which refers to the
Fortress of the Hussey’s, a Flemish family that
came to the area in the 13th Century. It’s a very

http://www.dingle-peninsula.ie/sleahead.html

colourful town with craft shops, bakeries and
roughly 52 bars, 10 of which feature trad(itional)
music on various evenings of the week.

Next door to Dingle
Benners Hotel is Foxy
John’s Hardware Bar,
where I dropped in for a
pint.
Pat Buckley, my guide,
later explained that
there are a few such
bars in Ireland that
serve a dual purpose:
“You can buy rat poison
on your right and
Guinness on your left”

From Dingle we drove up to the Connor Pass
Lookout for a view of the countryside and to
learn a bit of the history of the area, before
reversing direction toward Slea Head.
In tourist season, the buses travel counterclockwise on the route (see map) and therefore
many visitors travel clockwise to avoid the
congestion. However in January, there were
few tourists, so we followed the counter
clockwise route, slowing down or stopping
whenever we saw something that drew our
attention. Here are just a few examples:
Gaeltacht: (pronounced as ‘Gale Tact’) refers to
a Gaelic Speaking area and on the Slea Head
Drive, there are several such cultural pockets
and lots of signs in both Gaelic and English.