I am trying to narrow down the choices for the 3 unfilled days in our trip and am focusing on the Killorglin/Killarney area. Before we arrive in this area we'll have a week in a self-catering house just outside of Glengarriff, so we'll have covered everything in a radius of there. Then we'll have 4 nights in a self-catering house in Oughterard so that will be another radius we have taken care of.

For these 3 nights I know I want to visit Killarney Park (not the town) & Gap of Dunloe for a day or two, would like to take the Skellig Michael trip weather permitting, and possibly would like to do the Dingle. We wouldn't do the ROK drive unless we use part of it as a way to access the boat to Skellig Michael.

Here are the places I am contemplating staying (in order of preference). If we don't do the country house package which includes several dinners, we want a self-catering place. Are any of these significantly better or worse in terms of a location as a base to do the things I am interested in? This is not a trip with a day-by-day or hour-by-hour itinerary. We have a list of things we'd be interested in doing, and then we'll see what the weather is like and what we feel like doing. And, this wouldn't just be a drive around and look out the car window type of trip although we'll certainly be doing some of this. We plan to do some walking and perhaps cycling too.

Carrig Country House outside of Killorglin
http://www.carrighouse.com/

Riverside Holiday Homes in Killorglin
http://www.riverside-killorglin.com/location.html

Killarney Lakeland Cottages a couple miles out of Killarney
http://www.killarneycottages.com/

Old Killarney Village
http://www.oldkillarney.com/cottages.html

If you know the area or any of these places, I'd appreciate some comments. Thanks.

I've HEARD nice things about oldkillarneycottages, but haven't stayed there.

We rented one of the Riverside Holiday Homes, back in June of 2005. It was a nice, purpose-built Holiday Home, probably NOT as 'POSH' as the killarneycottages, but definitely nice enough.

Really enjoyed the river views from the back deck and the ability to walk into town (Killorglin (an walk BACK - from the pub! ). I would stay there again.

It's about 30 minutes to Killarney Town Center and a bit over an hour to Dingle Town. It does NOT have a real fireplace -- rather, an ELECTRIC one -- if That matters ...

My Trip Report for that year: http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...sures-tour.cfm

Bob

I looked into the homeaway website and got a few replies from the Ballyvaughn area which isn't too far from Killarney. It was difficult as we had just 2 days to fill and not many would accomodate. I think Old Killarney village has a large damage deposit that must be paid (self-catering)...but not sure about this.

Meant to add:

Benz Cafe and Dev's On The Square -- if both are still there -- were/are two of my all-time favorite eating places in all of Ireland.

We had a rousingly good night of Trad at the Bridge Bar.

While in Killarney, check out O'Rian's and the Granary for music.

Bob

Bob--Are these restaurants you mention in Killorglin? We are not the super posh types at all, so this would not bother us about the Riverside, nor would the fact that it isn't a real fireplace. The river part is appealing to us, but I'm wondering if sitting outside on the deck is somehting that one does in Ireloand in the end of May. Temps don't look so great to me.

I'll take a look at the large damage deposit for Old Killarney; thanks for the heads up.

julies -

Riverside was clean and modern and 'posh' enough for us.

Both Benz and Dev's are in Killorglin, on opposite sides of the Square from each other. Both were EXCELLENT. Dev's was a bit pricey, while Benz was more moderate (in 2005).

We had morning and evening beverages out on the deck -- watched the swans floating by.

We live in Florida, so even in the 'HEAT' of Irish summers, usually wear heavy shirts and/or light jackets. In 2005 our week there included little or no rain, but many of the mornings were cool (to us) and foggy.

Bob