The Dingle Peninsula in southwest Ireland provides a variety of settings for the walker, ranging from country roads, like this one, to beaches, cliffsides and mountains. The Dingle Way, a 112-mile circular route around the Peninsula. It begins and ends in Tralee, going through Camp, Annascaul, Dingle Town, Ventry, Slea Head, Feonaugh, Clohane and Castlegregory.
Your walk begins in Camp and goes around to Castlegregory, doing about 12 miles per day for six days. Accommodation is in a bed and breakfast each night, you are provided with a packed lunch and a supper, and your packs were transported from one destination to the next. Your driver will meet you at Shannon and bring you to the peninsula for the begining of the journey.

After a good meal and Irish music the night before at Ashe's Pub in Camp, set out from Finglas House with a lunch packed by Kathleen Daly and head up the road toward Annascaul. This is a day of walking across the peninsula on secondary roads, with little or no traffic, and on farm roads. It's also a day of beautiful views of Catherconree Mountain on the left, and Tralee Bay behind.

The view opens up to the south on the way over the middle of the peninsula on roadways lined by hedgerows of fuschia. The walk continues through peat bogs where "logs" have been cut and left to dry before being taken for fuel. Then Inch Strand appears, a three-mile-long spit of beach that separates Castlemaine Harbor from Dingle Bay. A bit later, the view behind is of Carrauntouhill, Ireland's highest peak. The road then leads down into Annascaul, with a view of Annascaul Glen and Annascaul Lake off to the right. Yur night's stay in Annascaul is at the Anchor Townhouse. Next door is Dan Foley's famous pub, where a peat fire and glass of Guinness will be waiting.

Beautiful views of a mountain ridge between you and the northern side of the peninsula; Crest a hill and see your first castle. A small one, and a ruined one at that, but it makes an exciting discovery nonetheless.  Minard Castle was built in the 15th century and destroyed by Cromwell in 1650. Its corners still show where explosions tore them open as Cromwellian forces attacked. Walter Hussey, a leading Anglo-Norman who had fled there seeking safety after an earlier attack at Castlegregory, was killed, as were all the forces garrisoned there. Today, with the cold, blue water stretching to the horizon and the impressive cliffs, it's a peaceful spot.

Much of the walk after Minard is on secondary roads through farm country. The approach to Dingle, however, takes a detour over the shoulder of Sugarloaf Mountain through rocky fields. Then a long gravel road and down into Dingle Town, with a nice view of Dingle Bay. 

Your night in Dingle is at The Captain's House, a lovely B&B filled with antiques, where breakfast is served in a glass-enclosed porch with a view of the gardens. Dingle is the place on the peninsula to do some shopping, find a good restaurant and stock up on money at a bank machine.

The walk to Slea Head is the toughest, and most rewarding, of the Dingle Way. It begins by rounding Dingle Bay, then joins an ancient road, now a grassy path, that climbs gradually with beautiful views of the bay behind and the coast beyond. As it heads downhill toward the beach at Ventry, Rathinnane Castle's ruins can be seen a mile or so to the right.

Then a two-mile walk along the beach at Ventry before heading up a green road called Bothar Dorcha (Dark Road) that heads over the shoulder toward Slea Head. On this stretch is one of the best concentrations of archaeological sites on Ireland. It includes Iron Age promontory forts, such as the one at Dunbeg, and scores of beehive huts (clochain), which are small circular enclosures, most of which date to early Christian times. To walk here, along ancient stone walls, fording streams coming off the mountain, is to be transported into the distant past.

Rounding the mountain toward Slea Head presents a breathtaking view of the Blasket Islands, now deserted but with their heritage of a generation of great Irish writers. Here, in Blasket Sound, the Santa Maria de la Rosa of the Spanish Armada sank in 1588, yielding a single survivor.

Your night is spent at Slea Head Farm, overlooking the Blatsket Islands.

The expected views of Mount Brandon to the right, and the cliffs and sea to the left.

Crossing the face of Smerwick Harbour, the Dingle Way treads nearly six kilometers of beach and bypasses Ballyferriter before finally reaching Murreagh and Ballydavid. Those wishing to take an earlier break at Ballyferriter should take the higher line along the sand dunes to spot the second turn-off for the town.

The Dingle Way takes in a larger section of cliff-walk once it passes Ballydavid, 3 kilometers in total before it starts to head back inland, rejoining the road at Glashabeg.

From there head along the cliffs toward your destination of Gorman's bed and breakfast at Baile na nGall.

The walk over the shoulder of Mount Brandon on this day is a highlight of the trip. It begins with a gradual climb of about 2,000 feet in elevation to the shoulder, with wonderful views behind of Three Sisters, the small peaks along the coast that were Charles Lindbergh's first sight of land on his trans-Atlantic flight. At the shoulder of Brandon is a view of the coast toward Tralee, marked at the highest point by a 3,500-year-old Druid standing stone with Ogham writing still visible on its weathered surface. Then a steep descent into a bog with more beehive huts on the slope and a walk on a gravel road down toward Cloghane.  Your stay at Cloghane is at O'Connor's Guesthouse, with its small, comfortable pub and a great breakfast in the morning.

This is an unremarkable day's walk on beaches, made interesting by the remains of a 15-century church and graveyard at Stradbelly. Farther along is the Lough Gill wildlife sanctuary and more beach walking around a peninsula before coming to Castlegregory. There celebrate your walk's end in a couple of pubs before retiring for the night.  Next morning your driver will take you back to Shannon Airport.