St. Mary's Church, Dingle, Ireland

St. Mary's Church sits on a hill overlooking the town of Dingle. It is on Green Street, one of the main streets in town, and has plenty of shops and homes around it. The church is a nice place to visit.

St. Mary's Church, Dingle

Back of the church

J was excited by the angelic holy water font. This font gets my vote for the nicest one we've seen in a church.

J and the holy water

The nave and altar are a bit dark, perhaps because we visited right after a funeral.

Nave

Altar

The stained glass in the church is quite beautiful and has many female saints.

Over the altar

St. Winifred

St. Helen

A room off the vestibule has the tomb of a previous pastor.

Tomb of a pastor

Behind the church is a convent that has been converted into the Diseart Cultural Centre which had an exhibit of some stained glass windows crafted there. The stained glass we saw there (because the children needed to use the toilet which was located in this building) was not religious in theme. We saw one with Barack and Michelle Obama!

Diseart Cultural Centre

Dingle, Ireland

Unsurprisingly, at the end of Dingle Peninsula is a town called Dingle. We stopped to walk around and have a bit of lunch.

We parked at the harbor and discovered that we had no change to buy a "pay and display" ticket for the car. We went into the tourist office to get some change. The nice lady said they couldn't give change since they weren't a shop, but if we were trying to pay for our parking we didn't have to worry because the parking enforcers are off on Sundays. We dodged a bullet!

We walked into town, admiring the view of the harbor and the strange anchor-chain fence.

Dingle Harbor

Two fences, or possibly a fence and a magic trick

We found a little restaurant for lunch where I ordered an Irish breakfast, which was delicious and filling. The chief difference between this and an English breakfast is the inclusion of white pudding, which is basically black pudding without the blood. The Irish breakfast includes black pudding too.

Black pudding and white pudding?!?

Fortified, we went up Green Street to see St. Mary's, the local church (which will get its own post tomorrow) and Dick Mack's, a pub which is also a hardware store. Not the safest mixture, if you ask me, but this is Ireland.

Dick Mack's pub, which also has hats?!?

We also saw an interesting restaurant that had nice colors and a split door that you hardly ever see anymore. I think those are cool.

Fenton's Restaurant, looking charming

L found an alleyway with a kitchen in it. She would have made soup if we hadn't already eaten.

L ready to cook

We came back down the hill and went to Murphy's, which is not a pub. They have delicious, award-winning ice cream on sale and since we'd already eaten lunch, it was a perfect time for dessert.

Why so serious?

Leaving Dingle, we drove along the western edge of Ireland, called Slea Head, which is indeed the western edge of Europe! The views out to the ocean are quite dramatic.

Blasket Islands in the distance

Cliffs of Slea Head

More of Blasket Islands

Along the road we discovered a crucifixion scene that stood out dramatically.

Not a typical road-side shrine, but this is Ireland

We stopped at a popular overlook where we spotted a bird. Several other people had stopped. One lady was taking pictures and I accidentally walked in front of her. She said she had a shot of my butt and would delete it, so no worries. At least, I hope she deleted it!

Gull with islands

More islands

The drive was fun and definitely worth doing. Too bad the kids didn't stay awake the whole time!

Dunbeg Fort, Dingle Peninsula, Ireland

Dunbeg Fort dates back to the Iron Age, i.e. back to 500 B.C. The fortifications were built probably to resist invaders or at least to provide shelter for locals. This particular fort is the "promontory style" meaning it is built on the edge of the sea. The back of the fort is not protected by a wall but by cliffs dropping down into the sea.

Unfenced cliffs

More unfenced cliffs

View from the front wall of the fort

The front of the fort is protected by an outer wall as well as four lines of embankments and five fosses (ditches).

Embankments and fosses

First entrance with J and L ready to guard it!

The first entrance through the outer wall is flanked on the inside by two guard chambers which we discovered are large enough to stand inside, though the entrance hole is tight.

Looks more like the entrance to an oven, if you ask me

L with plenty of room to spare

A large clochan or stone hut (referred to as beehive huts because of their shape) stood inside the outer wall. It is quite spacious inside but the roof had caved in long ago, leaving only the wall around the edge.

Stone hut without a roof

The family seeks shelter

The path from the embankments through the outer wall and into the clochan is covered with large stones because a souterrain or underground tunnel connects them all. Large stones cover the underground path now.

Exit from the inner clochan

Exit through the main wall (L's guard room is to the right)

A water drain runs off to the east of the enclosure. People aren't sure if it was used back in the day, but it does make some nice waterfalls currently.

Waterfalls!

The fort had two major periods of use. Archeological finds from the 8th and 9th centuries indicate the area was used for cooking over fires with many animal bones in the debris. The second period, from the 10th and 11th centuries, shows most of the activity inside the beehive. The excavations did not reveal definitely what the locals used the site for. No weapons were found, so it seems not to be a military fort. It could have been defensive, or ritualistic, or even regal. Perhaps future archeology will tell. Archeologists better hurry, because a great deal of the site has already fallen into the sea!

When we visited, our first stop was the visitor center where we watched a brief video on the history of the fort. The video claims that one reason locals think that it has survived the millennia is that the fairy folk were protecting it. Or at least, if locals messed with the forts, the fairies would curse them with bad luck. The ticket lady asked L if she had ever seen any fairies and L said yes. Later, as we were walking down the path to the fort, we asked her when she had seen fairies. L said, "You know, like we took to get to Ireland." Oh...ferries! Whoops!

Visitor center

Path down to the fort

L reads about ferries or fairies

J and L began their own conservation project, putting small stones into the wall to help reinforce the longstanding structures. They worked together nicely. Even nicer, they didn't take any stones out.

Learning to build our own fort back home