carolsc

While at Killarney we'd like to hike/walk the Gap trail from Kate Kearney's cottage and then connect with a tour so that we can boat back through the lakes. Is this doable if we leave our rental car at the cottage? How long does the hiking section take at a reasonable pace with some stopping along the way? Are light day hiker boots OK? Any particular tours recommended for the boat stretch? Would love to hear from those who have done this with their thoughts. Many thanks!

Clifton

Hi Carol,

I think there are a few tours that do the route and I wish I could remember the specific one we chose, but they are all essentially doing the same circle, with the same sort of boats, etc so I don't think you could go too wrong. The one we picked has a little office in Killarney just on the main street a block north of Kenmare Sq.

The boats are open wooden motor boats that leave (or arrive) near Ross Castle. There's a little parking lot there, but we were picked up in town. In our case, the trip back from Kate Kearney's cottage was on a little bus that brought us back into town. The tours run either direction, depending on when you choose to leave.

We took a jaunting car for the actual gap, but we paid the driver separately for this and plenty of people we hiking. It's a small road, but paved with asphalt, with lots of hills. Pretty much the same hiking gear you'd use to walk any country road would be appropriate.

bucky

I haven't actually gone yet, but we're planning a trip as well and I came across this website:

www.derostours.com

I've read that it's an all day trip to hike and then take a boat tour.

Patrick

Looking at my journal, I see we took a bus on our own from downtown at 10:30. We did the 7 mile hike. We reached a cottage by the lake where we had lunch, arriving 1:30, having taken our time with the hike. We grabbed a quick bite before taking a 2:00 boat -- bought our tickets right there. We had been advised that there are lots of boats and no problem getting tickets. We didn't want to be committed to a time to get one. There were in fact lots of boats and this was a beautiful and busy day. The boat trip was about 2 hours, arriving back in town about 4 PM. The boat also stopped at a little lake cottage for tea and cake. It was a wonderful day!! Being from Florida, we foolishly didn't have hats that day, nor did we take sunblock. I note we were both sunburned and miserable that night. A word of warning. I can't imagine booking a tour for this trip, but I know lots and lots of people did.

carolsc

Thanks to you all for your suggestions.

Budman

Carol, we paid 50 euro for the two of us which included bus transportation from our B&B to Kate's cottage, the river boat ride to Ross Castle, and the bus ride back to our B&B.

The jaunting cars (horse & buggy) cost 80 euro. We split a buggy with another couple, but that sucked -- the horse couldn't carry us on a couple of the up-hill legs of the transit, so we had to get out and walk, and get back in on the down-hill sections of the gap.

If one drove to Kate's Cottage, hiked the Gap, took the boat to Ross Castle, I don't know how they would get back to Kate's to pick up their car. Taxi maybe?

It's a nice hike if you are into hiking. Hope this helps you.

Pawleys

We loved hiking the Gap of Dunloe. We left our rental car near Kate Kearney's cottage. Made arrangements there to meet the boat at the end of the hike and have a van pick us up near Ross castle and drive us back to our car. Wish we had made sure we had enough time to walk around the castle.

bb3520

I want to take the tour starting at Kate Kearney's cottage (since I will be driving from Dingle), take the trap, then take the boat to Ross Castle. It sounds like I can arrange these on the spot. But from Ross Castle, does anyone know how (or whom to contact) to get back to KK's Cottage to get our car? Pawleys said that they did that but didn't say how to arrange it.

robbieb

Hi Carol

We did the trip end of last month and it was one of the highlights of our holiday. We booked through Corcoran's tours in Killarney (do a web search for their web site), their email is [email protected]. As the tour ends up at Ross Castle and we were staying in Kenmare, we left our car there in the car park and Corcoran's bus picked us up there at 10am in the morning. Plan was to end there at around 4pm and do a tour of the castle but we got a little wet from the boat trip shooting the rapids at the "Meeting of the Waters", so ended up passing on this. Trip cost E25 and we took a horse and cart which for three cost E20 each. Hiking takes about as long as the horse and cart if you are fit (ie around 2 hours). I would emphasise that you need a good weather day for this trip, we were very luck, but could be a pretty miserable experience if bad weather.

irisheyes58

I used derostours while in Killarney. I highly recommend them.

Faux

I stayed in Killarney on a walking group tour, we took a bus to KKs cottage but I am sure there would be local transport - taxi or even one of the local horse and buggy rides. We then walked through the Gap of Dunloe, & the Black Valley (we stopped part way down for a picnic lunch) and then down to Lord Brandon's Cottage and took a boat back at about 2.30pm (don't leave it too late) which stopped to let us look at Muckross Abbey on the Isle of Innisfallen to Ross Castle from where there is a lovely walk beside the lake to the Knockrear Estate from which we walked the short distance back to the centre. I would go in that direction because, while there is a fairly gentle climb up through the Gap of Dunloe, the walk down to Lord Brandon's Cottage was much steeper.

Kay2

I booked with Deros ib a Monday in June (many people wait to check weather, then book day of) and we were deposited with people who booked from the other tour company in town at about the same time at the cottage (11 am). I did the walk with stops for photos and maybe 15 minutes for picnic, reaching the boat area at 1:45 or so for 2:15 boats. Everyone from both companies and tour group were all give 2:15 for boats. Two fellows did not have tickets and were told to wait to see if space available. I saw them later, so I suppose they got on. I would have liked to have started earlier just to sit longer to picnic and enjoy the views, but all tours seemed to leave at 10:30. A taxi there was E16 and I wasn't sure then how to arrange the boat. The problems were that the walk up is much more scenic than the way down, so I wanted to linger at the beginning, but there were no mile markers (that I saw), just top of pass, so hard for me to guage past my xeroxed map how long/far I had to go (and I didn't want to miss the boat) so I just made sure if others passed me that I caught back up to keep the standard pace.

I wanted to look at Ross Castle so I walked back into town from the boat landing.

I saw people coming the other way who had taken boat over and were pushing bicycles. Few looked like they were in shape to pedal up to the pass, so it was going to be a long hike pushing a bike.

bucky

We just got back this week.

We drove from our lodgings in Kenmare to Kate Kearney's cottage. Got there about 11 am. We (two adults, two teens) hiked the route wearing normal tennis shoes. (Actually I had on Rockport world touristers). It's all paved and not difficult if you can handle a 6-7 mile walk. We did not walk fast, and stopped frequently for pictures. It did rain lightly off and on, and then pretty hard for the last 20 minutes. It did not rain in Kenmare that afternoon, so I think being in the hills you get more rain there.

It took us about 2 1/2 hours to get to Lord Brandon's cottage. We used the bathrooms, had some soup, and bought boat tickets. The lady who sold us the boat tix also arranged for a bus to meet us at Ross Castle and take us back to our car. They charged us 24 euro for the boat and bus. It was a smallish bus with others aboard who we hadn't seen at the Gap. I think the boats left about 2:30 and that was the last group of the day.

We enjoyed it very much, including the boat trip. The four of us were the only ones on our boat, but the other boats were more crowded. This was late June. They had plastic tarps you could put over your legs on the boat which was nice since my husband and son were in shorts and my daughter and I had on long, wet pants.

Beautiful and worth doing.