Although our plans showed that today was dedicated to Killarney National Park, we had left ourselves the freedom to choose exactly what we wanted to do in the park while planning a few months ago. So last night, we looked at the available trails, castles, and estates we could tour, and we agreed to take a multi-leg trip through the Gap of Dunloe!

Our trip started at 10 am, taking a quick ride on a restored vintage 1929 bus from the town center out to Ross Castle in the national park. We had a few minutes to explore the lakeside castle’s grounds before walking over to the nearby docks to catch our boat.

As the dock workers were splitting us into groups of 10, the weather began to turn. The sunny skies became overcast, and we could feel the first drops of rain.  Lauren and I grabbed our rain coat from our backpack and suited up for the 90-minute boat ride.

Though it was rainy, the boat offered incredible views of the landscape of small mountains covered in patches of craggy rocks slicing through a lush dark green grass and abundant trees and brush. Our trip started in the largest of the lakes in the national park, and we made our way through rivers and small channels to arrive in the higher lakes; at one point all the passengers needed to disembark so the boat could motor through a particularly rough and turbulent pass between two of the lakes. Along the way, we crossed underneath a few old bridges, one was almost 250 years old and still standing!

The boat ride ended at Lord Brandon’s Cottage, which had served many purposes over the years but was now just a nice place to grab a bite before beginning the hike. We skipped the food and immediately set off.

The hike took us through a small sheep herding town before starting the ascent to the pass. The path up to the pass was steep, narrow and heavily trafficked by “jaunty cars,” or as we call them, horse-drawn carriages, making for several slow and awkward exchanges so they could pass each other. Thankfully, as we got higher up, the traffic seemed to thin out, and we were mostly left with other hikers on foot. As we climbed the clouds had mostly parted, and there was no longer any rain.

At the top of the pass, Lauren and I wanted to get a photo together from slightly off the beaten path, as we prefer on all of our adventures. We hiked off the trail for a few minutes, and after crossing a small creek found a good spot for a panoramic photo with the two of us. I climbed up a large rock outcropping to position the camera as Lauren went ahead. As I was setting up the camera, the sky began to darken, and the clouds drew in, and Lauren shouted at me to “hurry up!” When I was about to run over to meet Lauren for the photo, I covered the camera with an extra jacket we brought.

By the time I had reached Lauren the rain had begun to fall and was rapidly picking up steam, but we quickly posed for the camera a few times to make sure we got the shot. At this point, it was outright pouring, and my jacket was completely soaked through on the sleeves, so I quickly ran back to the camera and transferred it into its waterproof bag.

The rest of the hike was heading back down the other side of the gap. We were worried we’d miss our bus back home, so we picked up the pace and ended up having enough time to spare at the end of the trail to get some ice cream cones from a small shop.

We had a nice seafood dinner and got what is now my favorite chowder ever, though Lauren still thinks Boudin’s is better. Then we finished off our evening meal with another round of ice creams… if your ever in Killarney, you need to get the Dingle Sea Salt from Murphy’s!