Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Killarney National Park Horse and Buggy

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Killarney National Park Horse and Buggy

Has anyone taken the hourse and buggy ride through Killarney National Park? Thank you for any input.

Beth: We didn't do the tour but we did take a short hike to the waterfall in Killarney which I would highly recommend. It was soooo green we were waiting for the leprechauns! Enjoy!

Beth: I presume you are talking about the Gap of Dunloe tour. You can also do short rides around Muckross house. I've done one of the short rides, but not the Gap of Dunloe. Rain prevented me from doing Dunloe this year so I'm hoping I can do it next year. You can pick them up at Kate Kearney's Cottage. If you do the tour, you normally find your way to Kate Kearney's, then hike, pony trek or hire a "pony & trap" for the ride through the gap. From there, you can take a boat back through the lakes. Here is the website of one company that runs these kinds of tours. The hiring of the ponies is usually up to you. http://www.corcorantours.com/tours.html

Hi Beth - I went to the corcorantours site, but did not find a quote on the pony&trap portion of the Gap of Dunloe tour. Does anyone know what I can expect to budget for this? Also, is it possible to drive to "Kate Kearney's cottage" ourselves rather than take the coach mentioned? Thanks

Killarney has over 100 jarveys,pony traps or buggies or whatever you like to call them.They leave from a site near the Episopalian church (Church of Ireland) in the town and head mostly to the Natioanal Park,14,000 acres of wonderful scenery.They are available too from other places such as Muckross House,about 3 miles out of town.Charges are negotiable!I was there yesterday but did not use a jarvey.I merely walked a few miles and enjoyed the enchanting views.Fairly new additions to Muckross House are the traditional farms,which show how small,medium and large farmers lived in Ireland in the 1930`s.I notice they have a web site at www.muckross-house.ie It is possible to drive to Kate Kearney`s Cottage.The trip through the three lakes in a boat from Lord Brandon`s Cottage is worth doing too.Queen Victoria did it in 1861.

Information on the Gap tours has been pretty sketchy and I've even emailed a company, and they gave me information that was conflicting with other sites. You can drive to Kate Kearney's Cottage, but I'm not sure how to get the boat thing set up. You may be able to grap a boat back. The best bet may be to call the Tourist Board in Killarney (if you can) and see what they tell you. The reason that the price isn't posted is that you make a deal with the drivers and usually a tip is in order. I'm thinking that even the tour around Muckross was between E10-20, but I don't really remember. That was when pounds were around and a long time ago. I was going to find all of that out when I was there, but the weather was terrible each morning, so we hung around the guesthouse by the fire and got cozy. I'll do a little research and see what I can find though. Bill

Thank you so much. I am assuming the park is worth visiting? Prehaps that should have been my first question! Any suggestions on where to stay and dine in Killarney for a night or two? Thank you kindly.

OK Beth, here is the info: 1. Coach - Walk - Boat: ?20.50 2. Coach - Pony & Trap - Boat: ?38.00 3. Coach - Horse - Boat: ?45.50 These are approximate. You may have to take the Coach to get the boat ride back. Probably not a terrible thing. It's a pretty short coach ride. Yes, the park is beautiful, but don't miss the much less crowded Ring of Bearra. There is a beautiful waterfall on Beara that you can see from across the Bay on the Kenmare to Sneem road. On the Ring of Beara road you need to look for a turnoff to Gleninchaquin Park. It may just be Inchaquin with no glen). If you get to the turnoff to Healy Pass you've gone too far. We saw the falls just after a rain and it was spectacular. As far as where to stay: Killarney gets a rap as being pretty touristy and I have to agree. I would stay up the road in Kenmare. Time after time people tell me it's there favorite Irish town and it is certainly my favorite. It's a small town with lots of shops, very clean, brightly painted buildings and very good restaurants. There is a new place called Casey's that has Irish music 4 or 5 nights a week. They do something different because they have figured out that not all tourists can stay up till the wee hours waiting for music to start in pubs. They have a two hour set that starts at 8:30. Get there early and have dinner and then go into the pub and listen to the music. I also had the early bird dinner at the Wander Inn (6-8:00PM) and it was great and the portions were enormous. Oh yeah....where to stay. I have two favorites there and I'm sure there are others. On the less expensive end is the Harbour View B&B on the Ring of Beara road. Nice B&B with a spectacular view of the Bay. E25-30pp. More upscale is the Tahilla Cove Guesthouse. This is more like a Hotel but with the personal service of a B&B. It has it's own bar and serves meals many nights and you can get snacks throughout the day. It is definitely more than a B&B but you do pay for it. E55 pp. They are just outside of Sneem and about a 15 minute ride into Kenmare. It sits on the Kenmare Bay and you can go for a walk with the very enthusiastic Monte and Harry, the resident dogs. We really enjoyed the place and were glad we splurged because we had our worst weather here so we were able to curl up by the fire and wait for it to pass. Gee, that was long winded. Hope it helps. Bill

Now Bill, shame on you!!!!!!!! You should have directed Beth to the web site where you had YOUR questions answered about the price of buggy rides through the Gap of Dunloe! Michelle Erdwig did your research for you on her travel forum. I to agree that Michelle is a fount of knowleadge about Ireland and I got some good answers from her about my trip. I check in there and here regularly. Why not share it with others? www.irelandyes.com and the place the question was answered was at http://pub73.ezboard.com/firelandyes...icID=280.topic Well, Bill thanks for sharing your extensive research with others!!!!!! It helps.

Actaully i asked about three places. Her's was the first to respond. I thought I was doing someone a favor by finding the information. I guess I'll just stop. I knew of the site and could get there quickly. I assume that you were being sarcastic about my extensive research. All of the other comments are from my trip. I just didn't know the price of the tours. Shoot me for helping! Bill

Thank you so much! It was so thoughtful of you to search out the answer for me- although I don't know what a "trap" is for sure... I also appreciate the tips on where to stay outside of the crowds, which will be very nice. It sounds like you have traveled Ireland quite a bit, have you stayed in a castle you liked at all? As much as I know I should book B&B's to get the local flavor, I just think staying in the castles must be dreamy. Did you have a place you liked for car rental? Thank you, Beth

Beth: The only castle that I've stayed at is the Ashford which is quite pricey and I'm kind of a simple guy. Yes, it was very nice, but I liked the home style atmosphere of the B&Bs. Dromoland is another big one and then there are some smaller ones, though many times just as pricey. There are a few websites that list castles in Ireland and check some of the tour companies CIE, brendan etc), they do castle tours and that can tell you where to find them There is a "castle" in Cahir (Carrigeen) which is much less in price. It has gotten some great and not so great reviews on Irelandyes (apparently I need to enclose a bibliography) so you might want to check them out. It's actually and old jail, but it does look preety cool when you drive by. I've never been inside. It's run more like a B&B from what I understand. Bill