Inch-Glenbigh

On the road from Dingle to Kenmare is a sand spit at Inch stretching 4 miles out into the bay. This was the strand featured in Ryan's Daughter. It is mirrored from the other side as Rossbeigh Beach near Glenbigh: this is where we were headed for the night.

The beach or Tra at Inch is spectacular. A surfing school was in progress and we were sorely tempted to stop and get the canoe out. But we reckoned we could do the same at the other side from Glenbigh so we didn't pause longer than a photo shot.

Glenbigh camp site is one of the few Carvan Club sites in Ireland and of course expensive. But you cannot avoid the style of the place; spotless does not come close. Even though facilities are not much better than Doonin, and the site is not as well presented - it still has an edge to set it apart. Though that is not necessarily appealing!

We had dinner in the Glenbigh Hotel; sadly cannot recommend it after the grub we had in Dingle. Besides the hotel claims to be the oldest in Ireland dating from 1860 or something - sounds very unlikely given the Crawfordsburn Inn dates from 17th century. After pint and pub food, set off to check out the beach at Rossbehy.

Took longer than we expected; about 4 miles in total but it was as expected a huge strand and a decent sea breaking. Sadly the parking area along the strand was governed by high gate preventing vans entering. A few parking spaces were available outside so we reckoned we would have to come down really early. On the return trip I investigated a road before the campsite to see it would be handier. It gave access to the lagoone behind the two spits at Inch and Rossbhey: the shoreline looked more interesting with small islands and inlets but certainly not as scenic. At this point we both caught the sun going down behind the mountains of Dingle.

In the morning the weather had turned definitely for the worse; the boat trip was off. So we just packed up and headed for the next port of call on our schedule - Cahersiveen.

As we drove along the fringes of the Ring of Kerry we could see absolutely nothing of the mountains: mist had drifted down to the lower slopes. Out to sea was marginaly better - we could just make out the mountains of Dingle. The views must be great though on a clear day; looking back toward Glenbigh we could just about make out the sand bar at Rossbhey reaching out to Inch.