Once among the rural poor counties of Ireland, Kerry has become successful in marketing the magical atmosphere and stunning natural beauty that abounds in the country. Right now, Kerry is considered as one of the top destinations outside of the capital city of Dublin.
With its stunning sights including the Skellig Islands, the Dingle Peninsula, and the Ring of Kerry, County Kerry is one of the most gorgeous and popular of the 32 counties of Ireland.
Perched in the country’s southwestern tip, Kerry is one rather rugged county that serves as the home to picturesque Lakeland valleys and mountainous peaks with an eternal rural character. This is also where you can find Carrantouhil, the highest mountain in Ireland standing tall at 1,039 metres at the heart of Macgillycuddy’s Reeks that form the stunning backdrop to Killarney National Park.
Killarney is the renowned town that serves as the best starting place to kick start your exploration of the region. This is also the main port of call for those that tour along the Ring of Kerry, which is the coastal road along Inveragh Peninsula that makes up for most of the county and is locally called the Kingdom of Kerry.
In Kerry, they say that there are just two kingdoms, the first one being the Kingdom of God and the second one is none other than the Kingdom of Kerry. The use of “The Kingdom” as a nickname when referring to Kerry actually dates as far back as 65 AD when the area was under the control of one of the O’Connor clans.
The name of the O’Connor chieftain was “Ciar” that was pronounced as “keer.” His descendants were called “Ciar-raigh” that was pronounced as “keer-ree,” that has a rough translation of “Ciar’s kingdom” or “Ciar’s people.” Ciarraigh was then anglicized later on to Kerry.
To make things even more exciting, County Kerry is also the location of the oldest footprints in the world. Over 385 million years ago, it was said that a huge amphibian animal treaded on the soft sediment on Valentia Island’s shoreline in County Kerry. The animal’s footprints were preserved as shallow impressions in a rock. The large amphibian was called a Tetrapod and its footprints are the world’s oldest known fossilized footprints. They also happen to be the earliest record of vertebrates that breathed air, moved onto land, walked on four limbs, and also the first ever fossil record of any amphibian animal.
Some of the popular Kerrymenn are Tom Crean, the Antarctic explorer on Dingle from Annascaul who travelled together with Captain Ernest Shackleton and Captain Robert Falcon Scott, and the statesman Daniel O’Connell who was renowned as the Great Liberator who untiringly worked for the Catholic Emancipation act, coming from Cahirciveen who later resided at Derrynane.
There was also Hugh O’Flaherty, the Irish priest from Cahirciveen who saved the lives of 4,000 allied Jews and soldiers in the Vatican during World War II.
Indeed, Kerry is a kingdom that you would definitely love to explore and discover!
