First thing we had a coach tour of historical sites of Limerick and the River Shannon.

Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes was born in, and based the novel on, Limerick. Like most of Ireland's towns and cities, Limerick is a mix of old and new buildings.

Prior to travelling the Ring of Kerry anti-clockwise, we stopped at Adare for a photo opportunity at excellent examples of thatched-roofed buildings and the old Trinity Catholic Church 1595AD.

Our trip around the Ring started and ended at Killarney. We experienced a wide range of landscapes and passed through alot of places including Killorglin, Glenbeigh, Dingle Bay & Peninsula, Scarriff, Killarney National Park and Killarney.

We also passed through Carhan, Cahersiveen, County Kerry, the birthplace of Daniel O'Connell often referred to as The Liberator or The Emancipator of Catholics in the first half of the 19th century.

The entire area is sheep grazing and rocky mountainous country and there seemed to be a sheep on every rock. The landscape was formed by the last ice-age. There were numerous lakes and bays as we followed the west coast.

Lunch was at the Bank Hotel in Sneem - a guest house where Maureen O'Hara spends her every birthday (her last was her 94th!). A lovely village with shopping opportunities and of course a pub.

We continued around the Ring of Kerry through the pristine Killarney National Park finishing at Killarney. Killarney is pretty and a tourist-mecca with many motels. Queen Victoria stayed in a hotel built especially for her visit in 1861. The opulence continues today.

On to Cork for our overnight stop before our last full day in Ireland.

Today's insights:
Dingle Bay was where Ryan's Daughter was filmed.

Irish Coffee (which we keep sampling) was not invented until 1950, by the bartender at the Shannon Airport (Limerick).