One of the most iconic roads in the south of Ireland is the Healy Pass, linking the R571 on the northern Kerry side of the Beara Peninsula with the R572 on the southern Cork side. The road is formally referred to as the R574, however it really doesn't fit the typical Regional 'R' road specification being single track for the vast majority whilst snaking up and over the Caha Mountains. One common piece of advice when taking a van over the pass is to leave early, so that is what we did leaving camp at 7.20am.
For us the pass started in Lauragh on the Kerry side, about 15 minutes from our camp. The first few kilometres of the pass are through woodland so it's always a surprise as to what's around the next corner, but luckily since we were so early we didn't come head-to-head with any other vehicles. Soon it opens up to the barren land that you expect towards the top of a mountain with great visibility of the road ahead. We ended up driving the full 16km pass without seeing any other moving vehicles, other than Jana and Petr's van that we were travelling with in a loose convoy. Whenever we're on the narrower roads we try to keep some distance between the vans as it really helps if you do meet passing traffic heading in the opposite direction.
The pass was enjoyable to drive and did offer good views, but compared to some of the roads on the NC500 and even the views from earlier during this holiday, I wouldn't rank the Healy Pass right up at the top. Perhaps the weather, that was back to being grey and overcast today, had something to do with it.
With the early start we had agreed to meet up in Glengarriff at a cafe for breakfast and this was originally going to be the final joint activity before going our separate ways (us starting to head back to Ennistymon to drop off our van and the others staying south enroute to Rosslare for their ferry to Cherbourg later in the week), but once we discovered that tickets were available on the day for the ferry to Garinish Island, we all jumped on the 1030 ferry from the Blue Pool in the centre of Glengarriff. The ferry takes the slightly scenic route, passing close by Seal Island that has over 250 resident harbour seals and a few were out of the water and visible.
Garinish Island was originally owned by the War Office, but was sold off to John Bryce in 1910. He commissioned Harold Peto, the son of Sir Morton Peto and a renowned landscape architect and garden designer of the time in his own right, to cultivate the island. Ever since Bryce's death the gardens have been maintained by the Office of Public Works and in more recent years have been open to the public to visit. The gardens include a number of different areas and we spent a good 90 minutes exploring. Matt was pleased there was a good 4G signal in the Grecian Temple so he could watch England win the penalty shoot out in the World Cup. After completing the loop of the island gardens it was time to catch the ferry back to the mainland. The seals were certainly now out in their numbers and the kids enjoyed seeing them as we passed their island on the journey back to Glengarriff.
Now came the point we had to part ways with our friends. It has been great seeing how well the kids played together on this holiday and I am sure it won't be long before we are planning the next adventure. So after a farewell performance in the fairy gardens by Paloma and Emma we said our goodbyes.
After parting ways our plan was to head just north of Glengarriff, to go to The Ewe Experience. Built by a husband and wife combo, it is a 1km sculpture trail built over six acres of woodland, winding its way around and across a waterfall with hundreds of sculptures, many with accompanying poetry or information boards and some with interactive elements for the kids to engage in. However, on arrival there was no space in the carpark, so we headed a little further up the N71/Caha Pass until we found a viewpoint with enough space for us to pull over and have a quick bite to eat for lunch.
Thankfully on returning back to the Ewe Experience there were now a few spaces available including one just big enough to fit the van into. The experience itself was brilliant. There is a set route through the site that you follow with different areas and sculptures to explore and little surprises hidden away all over the place. It is the sort of place you could go back to on another day and find something new that you hadn't noticed before. The kids loved it with the twists and turns and different elements to all the sculptures and installations.
We were there about 2.5 hours and could have been longer had time, the weather and Matt allowed but with the rain starting to get heavier so that even the canopy above was no longer keeping us dry and with a long drive ahead to our final campsite we hurried through the last section of the route and made our way back to the van.
We are staying tonight in Blarney and whilst we won't have time to visit the famous castle or kiss the famous stone it was a convenient location for our final drive before handing back the van tomorrow. (And to be fair our kids have enough of the blarney about them already!)
Blogged by Matt and Amber.
