We drove up to a town called Tralee for church. We were having the hardest time finding it because it didn't resemble any church I've ever been to. We stayed just for Sacrament Meeting and then we drove down to Kilarney where we ate lunch and began the Ring of Kerry loop.
I had picked a handful of things I wanted to see on the Ring of Kerry loop, but I also wanted to just wing-it and stop when we saw something that looked interesting. The loop goes around the Kerry peninsula and there are a lot of people on TripAdvisor that debate which drive is more scenic, the Slea Head Loop, or the Ring of Kerry. We loved them both but the Ring of Kerry had really diverse views, a lot of variation in the scenery.
Not too far into the drive we saw a sign for Caragh Lake and since I really wanted to see some lakes we took the turn-off. We followed the road up to an empty parking lot at a trail head and read a sign that promised a gorgeous view at the end of the trail. A view of the Macgillycuddy's Reeks and since Macgillycuddy is so fun to say we took set off.
I was just wearing flip-flops but the trail was easy and reminded us a lot of Idaho.
The castle was built around 1569 and belonged to the McCarthy and then O'Donnell families.
It turns out we would see more of the Ring of Kerry on the next day.