Today we drove around the Ring of Kerry. When we left the cottage it was -0.5 degrees C and the warmest it got all day was 6 when we were sitting in our car eating our lunch at Cahersiveen. It wasn't cold though - there was no wind and we didn't even wear our coats. Along the way: Tom and the girls skated on roadside puddles; we explored a deserted, dilapidated gatehouse; deserted castle; dismantled railway lines; we bought a huge packet of Irish wild salmon, sm...

Today we slept in and then went up to Muckross House (just up the road). The house itself was magnificent, truly, and the gardens were lovely. They had children's stairs, which we've not seen before - their tread is half the height of normal stairs. Unfortunately it was all spoilt a bit by the jalopy driver - he was quite persistent in wanting us to go on a drive (at 20 punt, then 15 when we said no). He kept on and on. We went home for lunch, then in to Killa...

Today we rose when we awoke, had our brekky and packed. We left our cottage at 9.15am, drove at a leisure pace down the countryside, caught the ferry from Killimer to Tarbert and arrived at our cottage at 4pm after doing some shopping at Killarney. We were held up twice by livestock on the road - the dog herded them on to half the road so we could drive on the other half!! We had scampi, fish and vegies for dinner (I cooked). I did the washing (2 punt to was and...

This morning we set off early - I drove for 2 1/2 hours to Wesport where they have 100 islands in the bay. The tide was out and some of the islands were joined to the land! There wasn't a headland or anything to view them from, it was very flat so we then drove on to Clifden, via Kylemore Abbey. The boarding school was so picturesque, serene and absolutely beautiful. They even have some borders from Australia. The abbey was originally a castle but is now an abbey...

Shannon and Jess both decided to stay home today, so Tom and I went off exploring the Duffy land. We found Laurel Lough, Laurel Hill "townlands" (2 houses and a sawmill) and Lauren Hill Lough. We bottomed the car on a hill and thought we'd done some serious damage, but we hadn't, thank heavens. We found a dismantled railway line running down a boundary - it was built around 1850. We then drove on to Clogher. There was no sign of Drummally Church, but the graveya...