Ballydavid Head & Beenmore
Ceann Bhaile Dháith agus Binn Bhaile Reo
Another outing to the very west of Kerry and down to the beautiful Dingle Peninsula.
This route is taken from the Adrian Hendroff book on Walking the Dingle Peninsula. Parked at the suggested place where theres room for 3 or 4 cars. Met two others who were after walking their dogs on the beach, so, no panic about parking somewhere you shouldn’t be.
Started off up the road per the guide. Nothing much to it, the ground is mostly firm on the way up. This route has us going pretty much straight up.
Now, once you get to the ridge you will want to go to the left towards the south taking in views of Three sisters, Ceann Sibeal, An Tearacht and in the distance the Blaskets, the views are simply amazing.
The Three Sisters, Ceann Sibheal, The Head of an Fear Marbh, and An Tearacht
The down side is you have to double back on yourself. I have seen another video on Youtube : Sean Joseph - Ballydavid Head Walk - Kerry where the walker takes a slight diversion to the left at the start and seem to avoid the road, the added benefit of this seems to be you don’t have to double back on yourself when you get to the top. Suppose i’ll just have to go back some day and redo it, not so bad….
Walk back towards the ruins and carry on.
the view to the North is towards Mount Brandon and that entire range. I don’t have the vocabulary to do it justice.
Brandon Creek, Beennaman, Masatiompan, Piaras Mór, Mount Brandon
Going from the ruins to Beenmore and especially back to the gate towards the start is a bit more of a challenge. Very much a lot of heather on the way to Beenmore. On the way back its Heather and Gorse with very few sheep paths to fall back on. Nothing hard or out of the ordinary if you’re used to hillwalking, but if out for a stroll, i’d be inclined to give Beenmore a miss and do the smaller loop at the start.
A friday in October and didnt meet another person apart from at the car park spot. All in around 8km with a bit of moving around for pictures and the usual. I was back down in this neck of the woods a few days later. It will be the subject of next blog post.
Until then, thanks….
