Day 1 

Sunday, December 14, 2025 

We’ll start by gathering in Dingle town. We’ll arrange a place to store your luggage to be transported to the house in the evening. For those that can arrive early enough, we’ll have an afternoon walk along “The Banks” of Dingle Harbor past Hussey’s Folly, the Dingle Lighthouse, Binn Bán Beach, to Dún Síon Head. 

We’ll have dinner together at a Dingle pub/restaurant. We’ll have more time to explore Dingle later in the week, but we can spend a few minutes poking around this small famous village. We’ll have transportation of everyone and the stored bags out to our house on Slea Head at the little village of Coumeenoole. 

We’ll be jet lagged, but it’s important to stay awake! 

Day 2 

Monday, December 15, 2025 

Keep in mind that this tentative schedule is tentative! Nearly every day brings some sort of wind and rain but also some sort of sun. We may swap days or rearrange things based on the weather and the mood of the group. Remember that it can rain (or worse) any day, and typically we’ll go out in all kinds of weather. Bring rain gear and boots. We also highly recommend gaiters and poles. Bring these every day. 

Today our plan is to walk a bit of the Dingle Way, a marked way path that wends its way around 110 miles of the Dingle Peninsula. Walking the entire Dingle Way is a popular endeavor in the summer and fall and we’ll take in various sections of it throughout the trip. It crosses nearly at the doorstep of our first house in Coumeenoole. 

We’ll breakfast in the house, enjoying the stunning westward views toward Dunmore Head. After breakfast, we’ll don daypacks, pack a picnic lunch, and head out counterclockwise along the Dingle Way. It climbs way up above Slea Head and then along the dramatic coastline heading east. It eventually exits the dramatic headlands and heads across more gentle terrain where we’ll detour to a secret cove and make our way down to Ventry Beach. This was the starting place for the pilgrims going to Mount Brandon and, indeed, there is The Saints’ Road, another waymarked trail that traces that journey. We’ll do parts of this on another day. 

We’ll walk along the beach into Ventry town which has a great little shop and Quinn’s Pub, our destination for Guinness and dinner. Near the town on the beach we may meet winter swimmers that take a cold plunge and enjoy a wood-fired sauna set up next to the beach. We can arrange for folks to participate in this activity. After dinner, we’ll have transport back to the Coumeenoole house where we’ll likely sleep very well after an energetic day out in the elements. 

[About 7.5 miles of walking; 1000 feet elevation gain; there are some earlier optional exit points] 

Day 3 

Tuesday, December 16, 2025 

Today we’ll head the other way along the Dingle Way and tour the parish of Dunquin (in Irish, Dún Chaoin). First stop is Dunmore which, like many places around here, was part of a Star Wars shoot, but prehistorically was a hilltop fort. There are some friendly sheep, a walk through the stunning village of Coumeenoole, some cliffside traverses (you can easily avoid any serious exposure), a hilltop shepherd’s hut, and an ancient standing stone. Next going north is the famous and picturesque Dunquin Pier. This is the embarkation point for the storied Blasket Islands, now deserted, but earlier produced some of the first Irish-language authors in the modern era. In fact, all Dunquin is in what’s called a Gaeltacht where Irish is spoken as a first language. After the pier we’ll continue on the Dingle Way through the village, over the next head to Mulcahy’s Pottery, where we’ll have our lunch. 

After lunch, we’ll return along the bluffs to Dunquin skirting the cliffs. Along the way is Ryan’s Daughter school house which was built for that movie in the 1960’s. It looks ancient. There is a nearby sacred St. Brigid’s Well and prehistoric fort ruin. In town, our final destination for the day will be famed Kruger’s Pub—westernmost pub in Europe. If we’re in luck, there’ll be some trad music and dance. 

[About 7 miles of walking; 300 feet elevation gain] 

Day 4 

Wednesday, December 17, 2025 

Today’s adventure is a climb up Sybil Head. We’ll get transport to Clogher Strand, just below yesterday’s pottery and walk from there. Clogher Beach on blustery days can be a very dramatic beach with giant chaotic waves. No swimming here! Much of today’s route is along the Dingle Way. But we start on another local waymarked trail above the Clogher cliffs. The higher reaches to the summit follow social trails through farm and common land. At the top is a Napoleonic-era tower built at the behest of the British to watch for possible invasion by Napoleon’s armies. The tower is built atop a 650-foot sheer cliff with impressive views of the Blasket Islands and the all the western end of the peninsula. We’ll eat our picnic at the tower. This was another Star Wars film location. 

We’ll descend and reunite with the Dingle Way. We amble our way over to the town of Ballyferriter. Along the way we’ll stop at the historic site Dún an Óir. Dinner and Guinness are in Ballyferriter—Murphy’s for dinner, Kane’s Bar for drinks.  

[About 10 miles; 800 feet of elevation; alternate to the 3-mile r.t. Sybil climb is a wait at the golf course restaurant] 

Our transport will bring us back to the house for our last night in the Coumeenoole village. Tomorrow we’ll move to our house above Dingle Town.  

Day 5 

Thursday, December 18, 2025 

It’s moving day. Our transport will ferry us to the new house above Dingle Town. It is about a 20-minute walk from town center with a great view and ample space for our group. 

Once we’re settled in, we’ll go for a little hike across the harbor up to Eask Tower with its panoramic view of the town and harbor. 

[2 miles; 800 feet] 

The rest of the day is free time, though we’ll organize an optional group dinner and pub crawl in the evening. 

Day 6 

Friday, December 19, 2025 

We’ll ride a local bus to today’s start. The Local Link bus runs from Garvey’s Grocery in Dingle making a stop in the town of Lispole, our starting point. On the way to catch the bus, we can stop at local coffee shop, Bean in Dingle. Once off the bus, we follow another section of the Dingle Way, back into Dingle Town. This section is more pastoral but ends up tracing along the foot of Conor Pass. Once we’re nearly back in town, we’ll visit the Famine Graveyard and then skirt the hill around to our house. 

The evening plans involve a local Christmas choir concert and dinner afterward at the Blue Zone with great salads and not-so-ordinary pizza. 

Day 7 

Saturday, December 20, 2025 

Today we head north over Conor Pass on a quintessentially Irish road—one meager lane cut out of the cliff to accommodate both directions of traffic. There are great views up here, too. Just beyond the pass is Peddler’s Lake which we’ll jaunt up to briefly over the rocks and falls. Our main destination today, though, is the shoulder of Dingle’s big mountain, Mount Brandon (3122’, Ireland’s 2nd tallest). Our trailhead is Brandon Point on the remote northeast side of the mountain. We’ll hike most of the Sás Creek loop trail. This has dramatic views of the mountain, the sea, and the grandeur of their meeting. We’ll meet our transport at the Tír trailhead and then ride down to the village of Cloghane.  

In Cloghane there are some interesting and storied churches and graveyards along with a magical little trail to Fairy Land. We’ll go there, of course. 

[8 or 9 miles; 2500 feet] 

We’ll transport from there to picturesque Brandon Pier and one of our favorite little pubs, Murphy’s. They have Guinness, of course, and toasties, too. Finally, we’ll have our transport bring us back over Conor Pass in the dark back to our Dingle house. 

Day 8 

Sunday, December 21, 2025 

We’ll have the transport drop us off at Young's Cottage. From there we’ll follow the waymarked cliff walk to Murreagh. We’ll walk around this sacred valley: Saints’ Walk (Brendan's Oratory; Kilmalkedar; beehive huts; Gallarus); transport back to Young's Cottage; Christmas dinner at Young's Cottage; transport back to Dingle. 

[7 or 8 miles; pretty flat] 

Day 9 

Monday, December 22, 2025 

Mount Eagle or Mount Brandon; (and/or Young's Cottage to Ballydavid Head tower; optionally join local hill walker club); dinner together 

[Mount Eagle is 5.4 miles and 1600 feet from roadside trailhead] 

[Mount Brandon is 6 miles and 2700 feet] 

Day 10  

Tuesday, December 23, 2025 

Depart