Climbing Ireland’s Highest Mountain | CARRAUNTOOHIL & KILLARNEY Travel Guide

Climbing Ireland’s Highest Mountain | CARRAUNTOOHIL & KILLARNEY Travel Guide

Hi everyone, my name is Rain and this is my husband Chano. We’ve been living in Ireland for 7 years. Traveling and filming around this incredible country is one of our biggest passions. We love visiting famous Irish landmarks, but also less known destinations. In this video, we want to share with you how to climb Ireland’s highest mountain and what to do nearby if weather over current to hill is not safe for attempting the hike. Watch until the end to discover some of the most wonderful locations in this part of Kerry, one of our favorite counties in the Emerald Island. Welcome to our channel, Rain or Shine. Please don’t forget to subscribe for more travel content. County Kerry is located in the southwest of Ireland, bordering the Atlantic Ocean. In the last years, we have visited Kerry in several occasions, and we are always very excited to return and to continue exploring the county. We drove again from Dublin as the car is the best way to be able to reach all these destinations. After 3 hours and 30 minutes, we reach the town of Kilani and park for free next to its cathedral. The Revive Cafe and Wine Bar was our choice to eat a feeling breakfast to start the day full of energy. The weather forecast on the mountains was really bad. So we decided to spend this day visiting some of the most famous landmarks in Kilani National Park instead of climbing Karanto. First we drove for less than 10 minutes to the Ross Castle free parking. We started by walking near the workman’s rowing club to admire some of the best views over lock lane and Ross Castle. Kilani National Park has some of the most beautiful lakes in Ireland and you can actually hire a tour across this one. There are companies offering private tours in small boats with different purposes like reaching the islands in the middle of the lake or also fishing. There’s also a big water bus cruise that covers most of lock lane. Killer Lake Tours has a combination option that adds a rides in a traditional jaunting car to the package. The weather has been changing every few minutes since we arrived in Kirani. But we are not going to complain because we are in Ireland now. We are going to visit the interior of the castle because we couldn’t access 5 years ago on our first visit. And keep exploring rain or shine. Now it’s raining again. It’s a good timing. Ross Castle is a towerhouse and keep built in the 15th century. It is considered the ancestral home of the Odonahu clan, though the castle and lands around it passed by different owners along the centuries, including the Browns of Kernney. After years of neglect and almost complete ruin, it was carefully rebuilt and it’s currently operated by the Office of Public Works, the agency of the Irish government that takes care of the national monuments of the country. We have visited many castles, but the suggestive location of Ross Castle makes it one of our favorite fortresses in our trips. In this occasion, we were able to access its interior in a guided tour that sadly doesn’t allow filming. So, you will have to come here by yourself to see it. The price was totally worth it considering that our funny local guide was both entertaining and informative. As an interesting fact, this was one of the last brave Irish castles that surrendered to the bloody English invasion led by Oliver Cromwell in the 17th century. Our second destination of the day was just 15 minutes away by car. The Mukris House has a free parking area and there are many trails around the manor that are open to the general public. Kilani National Park is undoubtedly one of the most majestic natural destinations in Ireland and its spaces was first established when the Mukris estate was donated to the Irish free estate in 1932. Before entering the monument, we suggest to walk around to enjoy the views of this twodoor style mansion built in the mid9th century for the wealthy Herbert family. It is believed that the expensive preparations for the visit of the English Queen Victoria in 1861 contributed to the financial struggles that forced the Herberts to sell the state in 1899. Don’t miss the Mukris House Gardens with its numerous variety of trees and plants which are completely free to access as well. The shore of Mukris Lake is located very close. We are now in Mukra’s house. We are so excited to visit the interior. Last time that we were here, we were not able to enter because we were late and it was already closed. So now, let’s go inside. It is not allowed to film inside the Mukru House, although pictures can be taken. So, we can show you few still images of some of the 65 rooms of this elegant and luxurious residence. An enchanting 20 minutes walk through the lushy green woodlands brings to Murkris Abbey. This Franciscan friy was built in 1448 and it’s free to access. Like many Catholic monasteries in Ireland, it had a turbulent past and it was badly damaged by the Cromwellian English forces in the 17th century. Despite losing its roof, the monument has been preserved well enough, and it has a mystical charm that often emanates from semi-abandoned Irish historical sites. Some of the most important poets of Kerry are buried in these grounds. But for us, the most amazing part of the complex is the huge utree located in the middle of its cloers courtyard. It was getting dark so we didn’t have time to return to the nearby Torque waterfall. We visited the waterfall in our first trip to Kilani and you shouldn’t miss this natural wonder. After a 30inut drive, we reached our guest house for this long weekend. Wild Icelandic stays is a great option to stay in the outskirts of Kilani with a much more affordable price than the expensive accommodations in town. Our cozy room was clean and spacious and the friendly owner gave us good advice to avoid taking unnecessary risks in our hike to current toil. We also had a nice dining area where we ate our own foods for dinner. Before breakfast, China woke up at 4:00 a.m. and drove for 30 minutes to film and photograph Ross Castle again. Most people will love those extra minutes in bed in their holidays, but my husband won’t miss the opportunity to immortalize the best light conditions. The early bird usually receives the best prices at dawn. On his way back to the guest house, Chano stopped at St. Mary’s Cathedral to film it under the beautiful morning light. Kilani Cathedral was built mostly with limestone in a neo gothic architectural style during the mid 19th century. This Catholic church is still used in a daily basis by the locals. Our guest house offered a simple but more than sufficient selfservice breakfast. While eating, we checked the forecast and decided to climb Karan to hill in our third and last day in Kerry. Although the morning started with sunny skies, a lot of rain was coming later on. So, we drove for 25 minutes to the Tommy Wood trail free car park from where it is possible to reach Oilven’s Cascade in a charming 30 minutes walk through the forest. We chose to go directly to the waterfall by turning left and starting the loop in the opposite direction. Under the native oak woods and conifer plantations, you can see a wide variety of local flora with wild flowers, ferns, and lichens. The air in this area is considered one of the cleanest in Europe. Connecting with nature in a place like this nurtures the soul in a way hard to describe with words. A signpost and wooden stairs will bring you down to the river bank. From there, follow the trail by climbing up next to the river and you will quickly find Osivan’s Cascade. We will never get tired of discovering new waterfalls in the magical forests of Ireland. Legends say that whiskey used to flow down this cascade, but it turned into water when the English invaded the area. Before returning to the car, don’t forget to stroll down to the western shore of Lachlane for some great views. After a 10 minutes drive, we reach the Coffee Pot Cafe located at the main parking for the Gap of Dondo. This cozy restaurant offers tasty warm options for lunch, but also sweet pastries and hot drinks. Ideal to recharge our bodies for more walking. Although it is possible to hike the whole gap of Jono, our time was limited and we decided to walk only to the first wishing bridge. Such a beautiful Irish weather. As expected, the rain was finally here. But the road was easy enough and there were not many cars driving through. Come on, go down and walk normal. Keep exploring. Rain or shine, rain or rain? She found a way to stay safer away from the cars. After 20 minutes, we crossed the first bridge and reached the north side of the black lake. Instead of going forward, we returned to the car park and drove for 10 minutes to our next destination in this messmerizing mountain pass. The view from the south side of Augur Lake with the road being flanked with two massive stones is one of the most well-known panoramas of the Gap of Donville. Either driving, cycling, or walking along this narrow and winding road is truly memorable. But maybe avoid the car unless you are an experienced driver. We continued driving for a few more minutes and passed beyond the second wishing bridge. The Gap of Dunlow is really famous. It’s famous for a reason and it’s really, really worth visiting. And we were just driving around here and we noticed a lot of waterfalls both on our left and right side. And now we’re going to walk back to the small bridges that we saw and we’ll show you how amazing the place is. We’ll try our best. It is not allowed to park cars in this part of the gap of Dunlau. And that’s an excellent idea to maintain the captivating atmosphere of this scenic glacial valley. Over the years, Ireland continues to surprise us with its unparalleled natural beauty. I love Ireland. Hey. If you continue driving around 20 minutes beyond the gap of Dunlow, there is a more unknown but yet spectacular area called the Black Valley. We really enjoy road trips in Ireland because of the beautiful sceneries. I love this Irish roads. You’re all the time expected that nobody will come. It’s totally a one-way road. So, if there’s another car coming, someone has to go to the side. Of course, we were not going to miss the opportunity to get deep into this untouched valley and explore this remote gem of County Carry. The Black Valley was one of the last parts of Ireland to be connected to the electricity and telephone networks, thus its nickname, according to some people. Can you believe that this only happened in 1976? We stopped at Lock Comfing the Green Mountains over this dark and peaceful lake. Towards the end of the valley, a picturesque ruined cottage known as the slate house has become a popular subject for landscape photographers. referred also as Molly’s cottage. Its history is not well recorded, but some say that it was abandoned after the death of two family members, while others have mentioned that the owner was running a clandestine bar. On our way back along the gap of Tunlow, the skies suddenly lit up and we witnessed a colorful sunset to end our fantastic day. Good morning. It’s our third and last day in Kerry and today we are going to climb the highest mountain in Ireland, Karan Hill. And I think the weather is appropriate to climb this treacherous mountain. Come and climb the mountain with us. There are different routes and parking to start the hike to Kuram to heal, but we chose to leave our car in the Lisle Bane car park located just 30 minutes away from our BNB and completely free. Like you will see in the signs at the car park, everyone should take proper precautions before attempting this climb. At 1,038 m, the top of Ireland may seem a very low altitude peak, but the Mcgilli Cottis ricks, as this mountain range is known, have very unpredictable weather conditions. We don’t want to scare anyone, but in the past there have been deaths and people missing which required assistance from the Kerry Mountain rescue team. Being said that the 45 minutes trail from the car park to the lake Kali is very pleasant to walk and has a clear path following the river God. We have now reached the first part of this hiking route and now we are going to climb the devil’s ladder towards the highest part of the mountain. But if you don’t want to climb to the peak, we still highly recommend to visit this lake because the trail is very easy and the scenery is just amazing. The mountain views with the lakes from the area below the Devil’s Ladder are some of the most incredible we have seen in Ireland. From here the inclination became steeper and the terran much rockier. This is the reason why I do step ups. It was supposed to be 1 hour to the top of the devil’s ladder, but we had to be very careful because the way was extremely wet and treacherous. With every step, we understood better why it was given such name. We’re going to start the hardest part of the devil’s ladder over there. Come on, rain. It’s starting to rain a little bit. Hopefully, it doesn’t get worse. You have to be really careful here, especially with the fog and with the low clouds. This is not Easy. Wow. Incredible. So, basically we are climbing like a river. Come on. Sor is struggling again. Yeah, you have to be careful. It’s raining now and you really have to crawl sometimes and climb. Use your hands. It’s raining more and more. Wow. Don’t forget to stop and turn around to take a look at the impressive view of the valley below. It’s been much harder than we thought. have to use your hands a lot. Never ending. This devil’s ladder reminds me when Frodo, Sam, and Golem were climbing up to the caves and then they had to fight the big spider. It’s there on the top. Actually, I didn’t want to tell you. If you want to reach the top, you have to fight the spider. It seems like I already fought the spider. I’m so tired and we are very wet. Good thing we brought extra socks, pants, and um clothes, but it’s just there in the parking lot. I think we’re almost there. The weather prediction today was meant to be good. And look, this is scary. This is Ireland. You have to be super careful. Fingers crossed it gets a little bit better because we can barely see anything right now. We are now on top of the devil’s ladder. We cannot see the top of Karanu Hill, but we are going to try to reach it. We’re already here. Let’s go. At this point, we had only 45 minutes more to the summit. But a part of us wanted to give up and returned to the car. We were wet. We couldn’t see the beautiful views. The fog seemed to become thicker the higher we climbed and we were very tired. Luckily, there are piles of rocks left to assure the hikers that they are in the right path and that gave us confidence to continue ahead. We made it. Woo! We made it to the top. I’ve never been so happy to see a cross in my entire life. Karanto Hill didn’t make it easy for us. We couldn’t film this place like we were expecting. But at this moment, together at the top of the highest mountain in Ireland, we were extremely happy and proud of this unforgettable challenging adventure. That ends this Cary travel video. Thank you so much for joining us. If you know more about County Carry, please share with us other nice things to do and sites to visit in this incredible part of Ireland. We have posted other guides in the past from many places in the west of Ireland, but we love this area of the country and we can’t wait to return. Please don’t forget to like and subscribe to our channel. Your support will help us create more travel content. Until next time, keep exploring. Rain or shine.

We’ve been living in Ireland for 7 years and we’ve visited many of the most famous places in this incredible country.

In this video, we want to share with you our last trip to Kerry, one of our favourite counties in the Emerald Island and home of the highest mountain in the country!

Please share with us other places in the West of Ireland that we haven’t included in our videos yet, we would love to return to create more content there! Don’t forget to like our video and to subscribe to our channel to help us grow in order to create more travel content in the future.

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TIMESTAMP
00:00 Intro
01:08 Back to Killarney & Breakfast
02:29 Ross Castle
05:58 Muckross House
08:30 Muckross Abbey
09:52 Torc Waterfall & B&B
10:56 Ross Castle Sunrise
12:20 St Mary’s Cathedral & Breakfast
13:30 Tomies Wood Trail
15:05 O’Sullivan’s Cascade
16:36 Lunch at The Coffee Pot
17:12 Gap of Dunloe
21:55 Black Valley & Sunset
24:39 Carrauntoohil Climb
33:15 Outro

#travel #kerry #ireland #carrauntoohil #killarney