Day 4: last day in Killarney, Monday, August 8

The unseasonably sunny weather continued today, with a 77° taste of the coming heat wave. Perfect for the scheduled nature and history walk in the nearest end of the 40-square-mile Killarney National Park. (Karen decided to take a quiet day of sketching and painting instead.)

We walked from our hotel to the edge of the park about a block away, then maybe a half-mile to a park entrance. There, while some in our group visited the Catholic cathedral across the road, the rest of us strolled up to a former gatehouse that now serves as a tea room with a special mission:

Once we had reassembled, a local naturalist led us up a paved path through dense woods, pointing out native and exotic trees and shrubs, the gardens of a former estate gone wild. At the top the vista opened out to lawns and a hayfield looking toward the lakes and mountains we’d seen from a much higher elevation yesterday.

This had been private property, a former abbey owned since the 18th century by English gentry, later by a Guinness brewing tycoon, then by an American heiress and her English husband, and finally donated in 1932 to the young Irish Republic as the core of its first national park.

The rest of our walk was on hiking and horseback-riding trails through woods. Stops included a badger sett, an underground burrow with several large tunnel entrances (the badgers are nocturnal and shy of humans and we took care not to disturb them)…

… and yew trees, including one where the 20+ of us formed a circle at arms’ length from one another to see how these trees use their shade and their root systems to keep competing plants at bay:

Our group then scattered, some to look at the old abbey, the former manor house, or to take sightseeing rides. I rejoined Karen at the hotel and we hit the town for lunch and shopping – in my case for a sun hat (a need no one expected in this rainy country) and a replacement for my failing suitcase.

We’re now packed and ready to move on tomorrow to Galway.