Dingle to Clifden is a 6+ hour drive, more if you put the Cliffs into the mix. You need to break this trip. I generally recommend Ennis as a good overnight spot. Doolin is a couple of villages mostly consisting of B&B's a Jetty and 3 pubs.

1. I have not been to Powerscourt, but if you enjoy hiking, I'd skip Powerscourt so you have time to do some hiking at Glendalough, which I thought was a great place. One of the trails is closed for forestry operations through November, but the hike we took, Spinc Short Route (Blue Route), is open and it's a great hike. You'll walk along a cliff edge and see the most fantastic views of the valley and glacial lakes.

2. I would not consider Kilkenny Castle a "must". We much preferred the Rock of Cashel and Cahir Castle.

3. You probably don't have time to hike the Gap of Dunloe, but we did another shorter hike which was good--the hike around Muckross Lake (about 10 - 12 km). We combined it with a tour of Muckross House which we enjoyed very much.

4. Skip Doolin. As Tony says, there's nothing to see there. Our night there was the one mistake I make in planning our last trip to Ireland.

4. Take a look at the "Lonely Planet Walking in Ireland" book. I found a lot of good hikes in that book and we did a bunch of them on our last visit to Ireland.

Thanks - after a quick check it looks like Ennis would be a perfect spot! Will look into it more. Also - we are thinking of adding an extra ight in the middle and taking away a day in Dublin at the end. Where would you add an extra night....Kilkenny, or Kenmare? Lastly - we are thinking it might maximize our time and make more sense to just stay in Killarney as opposed to Kenmare, and scrapping the Beara drive unless we have extra time...I am hoping Dingle peninsula will meet our requirements for scenic drives and scrapping Beara will allow us to spend more time out of the car.

Longhorn55 - great advice, I appreciate it!! Please also see my additional questions above - any input? Gap of Dunloe looks beautiful. I am wondering if we should add our night to Killarney and do that hike on the way to Dingle - is that a possibility?

Pls read my trip report. I agree with your decision to skip the Beara Penn. The Dingle Penn is waaaaay more scenic in my opinion. I agree w/your decision to stay in Killarney. The gap to dunloe hike is not too bad (also you can do a buggy ride if short on time). It rained on our first day in Killarney so can't help you with the hikes...do spend some time at Muckross house...the gardens are quite nice.
Have you considered staying at Lahinch...that whole area is very scenic.

Shows how different people have different tastes. Beara and the Cork peninsula's would be my choice and recommendation every time.

Is there a "short route" on the beara peninsula that we might be able to do after the sheep farm where we aren't in the car all day? Lahinch is certainly an option instead of Ennis - I will look into both and let me know your thoughts on differences.

I think right now my biggest question is: Killarney 2 nights, and Kenmare 1 OR

Killarney 3 nights with one day trip to Kenmare OR

Killarney 2 nights (1 in Kenmare, 1 in Park) and 3 nights in Dingle

Suggestions?

Another question - is Ross Castle, Muckross House and Farms and Gap of Dunloe all do-able in a day from Killarney if we do the boat and carraige ride at Dunloe?

The Gap Tour that we took starts from Deros Tour office in Killarney at 10 a.m. and you return about 4 p.m. If you weren't on the tour I suppose you could see Ross Castle at the end of the boat ride. But then how would you get back to your vehicle at the beginning of the Gap?

Yes - it seems to make the most sense to do the tour for Ross Castle and Dunloe Gap through the tour companies, and then save Muckross for another day on our own, combining it with Kissane sheep farm and perhaps lunch in Kenmare. I am thinking of keeping the 3 nights in Killarney, that way we can stop off to hike in the National park on our way to Dingle, or just get on the road to the peninsula depending on weather and how we feel...will most likely be back with more questions on Dingle now that I have this part straightened out!

We drove to Ross castle and Muckross house. We also drove to the GAP and took a buggy ride. All three easily doable in a day.

Answering 2 forums in one place, Diamond Hill is the standard easy hike in the Connemara national park although there are more challenging if you like. You are not going to see much of the Connemara region if you dash back to Dublin after just one night at Ballinahinch. Drive the Bog road across Roundstone Bog back from Clifden to Ballinahinch. If you type A59 into the search window on the other forum you will get my hints for what on the road from Galway to Clifden and beyond.

You may be very tired from lack of sleep on the plane and jet lag for your first day. It may be asking a lot to visit Powerscourt or Glendalough, hike, AND drive to Kilkenny from Dublin on that day. I would play it by ear. As much as I loved both Powerscourt and Glendalough, it will get dark fairly early in October, and jetlagged driving in the dark on unfamiliar and unlit roads is just asking for trouble.

Confirming: Definitely Cashel, Moher, Killarney, Glendalough but maybe not Powerscourt, skip Kilkenny. Doolin, Bearea for sake of time.
Adjusting: better to walk around in Dublin first day after no sleep and enjoy pub music there and various nights.

With journey only a month away I'll bet you are excited!

Thanks everyone so much, I think we finally got it figured out! We have taken advice and modified our trip to give us more time on the front end to catch our bearings after the inevitable jet lag. We really want to see Glendalaough even if we just stop for an hour...we may still skip it, but we might want to stretch our legs and get some fresh air after being on a long flight! So - we are going to stay at Kilkenny 2 nights instead of one so that we don't feel like we have to rush to get there. I am thinking we would enjoy a walking tour and perhaps even a visit to Inistioge as well the 2nd day if we have time...we had to cut out Connemara and are now pushing through to Kenmare instead of staying in Kilkenny out of convenience. That is really where we wanted to stay anyway but were worried it was too muh driving on our 2nd (very full) day. Now with an extra day in Kilkenny we should be rested enough to do the extra 40 minute drive on our 3rd day. Here is our revised itinerary, though I am still open to suggestions!

Day 1: Kilkenny - 8:45 land in Dublin, get car, possible stop at Glendalaough and get into Kilkenny
Day 2: Kilkenny - Walking tour, explore city and unwind
Day 3: Kenmare - Kilkenny to ROC, Cahir, onto Kenmare
Day 4: Kenmare - Kissane Sheep Farm, partial Beara peninsula drive and/or walk
Day 5: Kenmare - Muckross House, Gap of Dunloe and Ross Castle
Day 6: Dingle - Hike in Killarney on way or get to Dingle
Day 7: Dingle - Slea Head Drive
Day 8: Dromoland Castle
Day 9: Dublin
Day 10: Dublin
Day 11: Depart Dublin 11am

Oops - meant we are staying in Kenmare instead of Killarney out of convenience

We managed a few of those sites in Killarney and Dingle including the Sheep Farm (which I don't see here too often). Photos and comments in interested:

http://ukfrey.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/ireland.html

Glendalough is a beautiful place to visit but not on your route to anywhere else - including Kilkenny. I would go see it at the end of your trip when you return to Dublin. Also you are giving too much weight to Kilkenny - a couple of hours would be enough. Enjoy!

Think you might find enough to fill a couple of days in Kilkenny asking on the other forum, Castle, 2 Cathedrals, a few Abbeys around and about and possibly the Brewery tour. On top of that it's a great place to have a night out, some great pubs and eateries.

http://www.kilkennytourism.ie/heritage

Hmm...I am not too worried about having "too much time" in Kilkenny because we love pubs and would probably be very happy with catching up on sleep teh first night, then having a day to walk the city, do a tour, and have a nice dinner and night out at the pubs. That being said - we REALLY don't want to give up on Glendalaough...should we just go there from our flight and stay in Laragh? Then go to Kilkenny the next AM and have all day/night? I just think if we saved Glendalaough for the end we wouldn't ever do it. By then we will be ready for Dublin city sights...

Provided you get a cat nap on the flight then Glendalogh is a possibility provided you don't go mad walking around. It might be better to head straight to Kilkenny and save Glendalaough for the return from Dromoland to Dublin as it would make for a slight detour off the M7 route back. There is nothing wonderful in Laragh apart from fresh air.