UCSC Extension Multimedia and Web Design Certificate - Final Project

Project Plan: Erin Dreams

Elsa DieLöwin

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map of Kerry including Killarney

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Erin Dreams
Tralee
Ring of Kerry
vista point
Sneem
Ladysview
Muckross
Killarney
stone circle
Paps of Anu
"my valley"
Scale 20 miles
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View slides of
Killarney & Muckross
View slides of
The Ring of Kerry
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Killarney, Muckross and the Ring of Kerry

Killarney
Kerry Dance
{text as below}

Journal text

August 4, 1998

 Coming around through the hills along the N22, I was struck by a strong sense of homecoming. I felt like I would come around a curve and there would be an ancient farmhouse, with my family waiting to greet me. When I got to the spot where the feeling was strongest, there was road construction going on, and the spot where my house would have been was buried under a new curve of road. It was a melancholy feeling to pass over it and on. A quarter mile further on was a lovely fall of river curving west and north. I felt like I wanted to follow the stream down around the curve of the hill, but instead I stayed with the road and pressed on. It was only a few miles further to Killarney, where we reached the B&B at about 5:30 p.m.

 When we sat down and looked at our map we determined that we had passed the Paps of Anu, and would have seen them if we had been looking north east toward them instead of west toward the river. There were also a stone circle and a castle that Krys wanted to look at.

 We drove back down the N22 to N72 and across north of the Paps to take pictures, then back and down N22 again to "my valley" to take some of the river. We tried going to the stone circle which Krys had noticed on the map, but couldn't find it. He was quite unhappy about it.

 We went past the B&B and town center to take pictures in wonderful Maxfield Parrish light, of the castle.

 I was wearing a t-shirt that I had bought in Wales at the Celtic Cauldron in Cardiff. We went to dinner at the Celtic Cauldron in Killarney. There was a wait for our table, so we strolled the fun, colorful and musical streets.

 We spotted a shop called Anu Crafts and stepped in. There were window decals, bronze jewelry and a map of stone circles in Kerry and Cork. I mentioned to the very nice store clerk Krys' frustration at our not finding the stone circle marked on our map. She told us it was rather hidden and then gave us a smaller scale map with specific instructions for finding it. We were profusely grateful.

 Dinner at the Celtic Cauldron was marvelous. Krys has a venison/mixed game galette and I had a wild boar trencher. When we were leaving, the proprietress noticed my shirt and said that it was her in-laws who had started the Celtic Cauldron in Cardiff, then had sold it and started this one in Killarney, then had given it over to her. We went back to our B&B and went to bed happy.

August 5, 1998

 After breakfast, we packed up and headed out, following the magic map to the stone circle. The hike in was through nettles, wet grass and blackberries. As I was wearing Birkie sandals, my feet were stung extensively. Fortunately, Krys was wearing sneakers and got through unscathed.

 There are two outer stones that seemed to welcome us to the place. Behind are 7 stones in the ring, each about 3 or 4 feet high and rather thick. Within the circle was a firepit with ashes and coins: one from Finland, one English, and the rest Irish. I left an American quarter (that I had been given by a woman at the B&B who had needed change for the phone).

 We went back through the edge of town to get on the road for the Ring of Kerry. Not far in, I wanted to look at some waterfalls, so pulled off at a likely spot. We were at the trailhead for the Torc waterfalls and there were a couple of single horse "jaunting cars" across the road.

 An older gentleman asked us if we wanted to go on the jaunting cars. After a little waffling, we decided to do so. The driver was not the man, but a beautiful young woman named Helena. The horse's name was Bill. We went around the lower and middle lakes, looked at the abbey ruined by Cromwell's men, and stopped to walk through the Garden at Muckross House. I took many pictures along the jaunt, then, finally, went up and took some at Torc falls as well.

 We continued up the Ring, then pulled off again at Ladysview. The views eastward were spectacular, with Killarney's lakes glittering below us, hills with trees and rocks arching on either side, and fluffy clouds and cooling breeze. Krys despaired of us ever getting all the way around the Ring.

 We continued on, stopping for lunch at a cafe in Sneem. The river flowing through had pools with swans gliding majestically, separated by flattish waterfalls.

 As the road curved around the coast of the Kerry peninsula, we got flashes of glittering sun on the bays to the south and on the Atlantic Ocean. At the furthest west point, there is a high headland with a large parking lot and a huge statue of the Madonna. From either side, both north and south, the bays are visible. I wish I had taken the time to climb to the peak of the headland, though I know we didn't have time. It would have taken at least an hour to go up and come back down.

 We continued around and back inland to Tralee where we reached the B&B shortly before dark. We went to dinner at Finnegan's but I didn't have much appetite until after I had a chance to phone our children. The dinner was good, but there was a group of very loud guys near us, mostly from San Francisco. "Blasted Americans!" said Krys.

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Killarney
from The Abbot of Inisfalen
by William Allingham
in A Book of Irish Verse,
ed. by W. B. Yeats (1895)
Dover Publications, Inc., 2001, page 164

Where spreads the beautiful water
to gay or cloudy skies
And the purple peaks of Killarney
from ancient woods arise

The Fairies

by William Allingham
from A Book of Irish Verse,

ed. by W. B. Yeats (1895)

Dover Publications, Inc., 2001, page 157

Up the airy mountain,
Down the rushy glen,
We daren't go a-hunting
For fear of little men;

Wee folk, good folk,
Trooping all together;
Green jacket, red cap,
And white owl's feather!

Down along the rocky shore
Some make their home,
They live on crispy pancakes,
Of yellow tide-foam;

Some in the reeds
Of the bleak mountain lake,
With frogs for their watch-dogs,
All night awake.