{"id":66,"date":"2025-07-05T08:24:56","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T08:24:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pcwrites.com\/?p=66"},"modified":"2025-07-05T08:24:57","modified_gmt":"2025-07-05T08:24:57","slug":"the-lakes-of-killarney-justify-their-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pcwrites.com\/?p=66","title":{"rendered":"The Lakes of Killarney Justify Their Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cThe water\u2019s very low!\u201d says Feargus, stating the obvious, as we run aground. I don\u2019t need him to tell me. Looking over the side, the clear waters of Lough Leane aren\u2019t even a foot deep. The limestone scraping against the hull of our wooden boot looks ominously sharp. Fergus ushers us all to the front of his vessel, so that the stern, sitting low in the water, can lift off the lakebed. We inch forward, and as we squeeze into Muckross Lake, the boat rocks as we passengers shift our weight. \u201cAt least if we sink, we\u2019ll be walking to shore!\u201d chirps an Australian. As we finally get free of the shallow straits, and head back into deeper water, the hills above us catch the sun, the flowering Rhododendrons shading them purple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No question about it, Killarney is a tourist honeypot. But there are solid reasons that people come here. Just outside the town is one of Ireland\u2019s most photogenic and wildest places, the Lakes of Killarney National Park. Somehow though, despite this beautiful landscape\u2019s accessibility, most people seem not to venture outside the town. As with so many places haunted by overtourism, it is actually very easy to escape the clueless crowds of the theme park town centre. A little walking is all it takes. Today, however, I\u2019m not walking. I\u2019m on a horse and cart, rickety wooden boat, and a repurposed London bus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone in Ireland knows about the Jaunting Cars that hang about on the roundabout in the centre of Killarney. They are ruled by Billy Tagney, the king of the Jarveys (the drivers) and his son, the softly-spoken Mark. Billy is a man of many parts \u2013 he doubles as a tree surgeon, and several times I\u2019ve seen him slicing up trees in an afternoon having taken out tourists in the morning. Killarney is a deeply entrepreneurial town \u2013 the sheer number of tourists and their Pounds, Euros and Dollars here brings out people\u2019s business instincts. The Jaunting Cars are high-wheeled carts for six or eight people. Mark takes us out into the national park, whose walls directly abut one of the main roads into Killarney town centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Killarney Lakes Jaunting Car. Photo by\u00a0Andre Ouellet<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Unsplash<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mark has his patter down to a tee. \u201cSee that tree? It\u2019s a sycamore. That one? A beech. The small one behind the beech? A son of a beech!\u201d Predictable, but delivered in his Kerry twang, and it\u2019s impossible not to respond. We drive past sitting red deer, Ireland\u2019s only wild herd, and pass some smaller Sika deer crossing a shallow river. The river is barely ankle deep \u2013 South-West Ireland in May should be lush, but it has hardly rained for a month. This will have consequences for us later in our journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually Mark drops us off at Ross Castle. A typical Irish square tower house, it was built by the O\u2019Donoghue clan in the late 1400s. Ireland at that time was a lawless and divided place, with little in the way of central government authority. Every local aristocratic family fortified to protect themselves from their neighbours. Irish Castles tend not to be on the scale of castles in most other European countries \u2013 they were family affairs, designed to protect from endemic unruliness and cattle rustling, not to withstand sustained attacks. Ross Castle is one of the best preserved of the hundreds that dot the countryside. It sets itself apart from its brethren with its location at the edge of Killarney\u2019s spectacular lakes, and with views up to Ireland\u2019s highest mountains, the McGillicuddy Reeks. It has a jetty, and from this my companions and I board a distinctly wobbly, low-sided motorboat, captained by Feargus and his first mate boat dog, Brian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We cast off, and the peat-dark waters of Lough Leane glide past below us. The prow of Feargus\u2019 speedboat churns the water into white, creating the dark-light effect of boating on a huge pint of Guinness. The taciturn Feargus deposits us on the small island of Inishfallen, on which lie the ruins of one of the most important monasteries in Ireland. Much of what we know of early medieval Irish history comes from the records that the monks here wrote. It is a special place, with deer grazing between the stone remains. Many of the architectural features of the roofless ruins are remarkably well preserved. I begin to understand why Irish monks felt that the best way to get close to God was to live in a place like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Feargus and Brian. Photo by Pieter Cordwell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rejoining Feargus and Brian, we travel towards Muckross House. The we leave Lough Leane and enter into the smaller Muckross Lake. We run aground on the narrow (and, as it turns out, very shallow) channel between the two lakes. Surviving this, we alight on a jetty a short work from one of Ireland\u2019s most beloved stately homes. As we stroll up, we pass more deer, who are picking at the flowerbeds around the house. The lawns slope up above the lake, and the house, as Jane Austen might say, commands a fine prospect. On this journey, we have had plenty of insights into Ireland\u2019s medieval past. Now we glimpse Ireland in the British-ruled nineteenth century, with all its wealth and inequality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Built by the Herbert family, the house exemplifies the luxury enjoyed by Ireland\u2019s aristocracy during the later years of British rule. The Herberts were of Welsh extraction but had been in Ireland for centuries. Their spectacular new house, built for Henry and Mary Herbert, was completed in 1843. This was just two years before devastating famine broke out in Ireland. The contrast between the Herberts\u2019 wealth and the precarity of their tenants could not have been clearer. It was this contrast that drove the accelerating discontent that eventually erupted into the Irish War of Independence, decades later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Muckross House. Photo by\u00a0Luana Niemann<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Unsplash<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Herberts extensively remodelled the house ahead of a visit by Queen Victoria in 1861. Henry Herbert had organised the visit in the hopes of an elevation to the peerage. Unfortunately, after only a few short days the Queen left Muckross to return to England, after hearing that one of her children was ill. The Herberts remained mere commoners (Henry was a member of parliament) and their finances, over-extended by the building works, deteriorated throughout the rest of the century. \u00a0In 1898, they were forced to sell their mansion. Their attempt at social climbing had led to ruin. Muckross House passed through a few more owners before ending up in the possession of the now-independent Irish state in 1932. The decline of the aristocracy that made such a house possible mirrored the transition to an independent and more egalitarian Ireland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, the way back to Killarney is on an ancient London bus that has been repurposed into a hop-on-hop-off service. Sitting at the front of the top deck, I examine the London advertisements, 20 years out of time and hundreds of miles out of place. They make a striking contrast with our surroundings of deep green temperate rainforest, luxury hotels. The Killarney traffic, however, is only marginally less chaotic than that of London. \u00a0Despite this, Killarney\u2019s history, landscape and characters justify its fame \u2013 it\u2019s lucky for the only-slightly-more adventurous visitor that most tourists don\u2019t take make the effort to explore out of the town.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe water\u2019s very low!\u201d says Feargus, stating the obvious, as we run aground. I don\u2019t need him to tell me. Looking over the side, the clear waters of Lough Leane aren\u2019t even a foot deep. The limestone scraping against the hull of our wooden boot looks ominously sharp. 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