Day 8 and I am sad my time is drawing to a close, but I mustered up the strength to gather everyone up and head out to the Dingle Peninsula and do the Slea Head Loop.

The weather gods were with us again as most of the day was warm and sunny and even as fog started to roll in toward the end, it never did start raining.

We first stopped at these unique beehive hits that date back almost 800+ years. The way these were built were simply amazing. Without using any braces, mortar, or other tools these huts were built by stacking rocks. The rocks were stacked in a way that they began to come a dome and at the top formed a roof. The rocks slanted downward so that the water would run off. Simply amazing that they are still standing. The task of simply moving the large rocks would have been a huge task. We found it interesting that the archaeologists are working on rebuilding some of these, but they cannot rebuild them without braces to hold up their work as they go. Also, I don't think that it looks exactly like the originals.

 

The Original



 

 

The New 

 



Next, we got to see the farthest westward point of Europe while at the same time we were held up because a bus could not make it past a car on a very narrow portion of the road. The car had to back way up so that the bus could pass.

 

The Westernmost Point of Europe



We saw this spot where they filmed Far and Away. This is where the Lord burned all of the peasants out of their dwellings thus causing many of them to emigrate to the US. This was a true part of Irish history, just without Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.

 



We also saw this beautiful Oratory that was built 1300 years ago using the same methods as the beehive huts. It still remains waterproof inside today. This amazes me because they can't even build my school so that the roof doesn't leak and it certainly isn't that old!

We then headed back into Dingle where we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Murphy's Pub, did some shopping, watched the fishing boats, and visited the statue of Fungi. Yes, Dingle Bay has a dolphin that has lived there so long that they have named him and given him a statue in the town center.





 

Our Dinner Pub

 

Stevie With Fungi



We headed home to enjoy our sheep for another night. I sure am going to miss listening to them out my window each night as I write this blog and then go to sleep. Something is peaceful and soothing about that being the only sound I can hear.



Tomorrow is the last day. The boys are going fishing and Stevie and I are going to Killarney National Park before we come home to pack up. So, tomorrow will be my final blog from this beautiful land. For now anyways.