Slea Head
The scenic Slea Head Loop in the Dingle Peninsula on the southwestern coast in County Kerry was our destination on day seven. Part of Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way, the thirty-mile loop offers stunning views of the Atlantic, Dingle Bay, and Blasket Sound as well as heritage sites, historic ruins, museums, beaches, and mountain views.
Slea Head Loop begins and ends in the town of Dingle. We’d been advised to travel clockwise around the loop because of the narrow roads, sometimes single lanes with places with hairpin turns, and because that was the direction of the plentiful tour busses driving the route during the summer.
We set out after breakfast stopping first at The Lios, the remnants of a ringfort likely built during the Bronze age. The Lios is a circular settlement surrounded by a grassy rampart and ditch, with evidence of some huts and a subterranean passage. The stop was also a petting and feeding farm, and inside the gate, goats and sheep ran wild, jumping on us to get at the feed we’d been given with our entrance fee. One particular stubborn billy guarded the entrance to ringfort, and we had to climb around him to get inside.
Guarding the gate
As in many places we visited, there is a legend associated with The Lios that says ringforts like this one were “‘fairy forts’ imbued with ‘Druids magic,’” and that to cut the fairy trees (also known as the whitehorn) which surrounded the fort resulted in death. It’s also said a person who enters the Lios between one and five a.m. would not leave alive. Luckily we were there during the day.
Across from The Lios we went to see the remains of Dunbeg Fort, another national monument of Ireland. Dunbeg Fort is a promontory fort that overlooks Dingle Bay. It was constructed of stacked stone and is believed to have been built in the Iron Age.
Beehive hut
From there, we stopped at the Beehive Huts (“Clochain” in Irish) which are stacked stone structures that resemble beehives with rectangular entrances and apertures in the tops small enough to be closed with flagstones. Beehive Huts are typically found inside ringforts in order to keep out livestock and preditors, and are believed to have been occupied by single families and/or monks from ancient times up until 1200 AD. We were allowed to explore five of the ancient structures on our visit. The construction is unique in that there was no mortar used and the stones were stacked with a tilt that prevented water from getting inside.
Stacked stone construction and aperture of Beehive hut inside the walls of a Ringfort
Our day included many roadside stops just to take in the scenery—Blasket Island in the Blasket Sound; Skelig Michael, an island used as a filming location in three Star Wars movies; The Three Sisters, a group of three peaks at the northwestern end of the Dingle Peninsula; and The Cross at Slea Head, a giant white cross that marks the actual Slea Head.
Skelig Michael
We stopped at The Blasket Center, the halfway point of Slea Head Drive. It’s a heritage museum and cultural center focused on the story of the Blasket Islands and their people. Behind the museum we found viewing platforms with more scenic views of the Blasket Sound and the Atlantic.
The White Cross at Slea Head
On day seven, we made a few wrong turns, we were held up by a flock of sheep on some side road, and said a prayer to make it up the steep single-lane road from the pier at Brandon Creek without encountering oncoming traffic as there was no place to pull aside.
All in all, it was a day full of fresh air, sunshine, blue skies, and fantastic scenery. Well worth the visit.