8 Best Sights in The Southwest, Ireland

This is an outstanding place to get a feel for what Killarney is all about: lake and mountain scenery. Stand beside Aghadoe's 12th-century ruined church and Round Tower, and watch the shadows creep gloriously across Lower Lake, with Innisfallen Island in the distance and the Gap of Dunloe to the west.

West of Waterville and 1 km (½ mile) before the Irish-speaking village of Ballinskelligs is the Cill Rialaig Arts Centre. This is the best place in Kerry to see Irish and international art, along with fine crafts and gifts. Its attractive, thatched, beehive-shape roof is hard to miss. There's also a café with wholesome homemade food and a wood-burning pizza oven.

One of Ireland's most interesting sights is also one of the country's best-preserved early Christian churches. Gallarus Oratory dates from the 7th or 8th century and ingeniously makes use of corbeling—successive levels of stone projecting inward from both side walls until they meet at the top to form an unmortared roof. The structure is still watertight after more than 1,000 years.

Despite its diminutive name, Inch is a 5-km (3-mile) stretch of sand and sea that extends as far as Dingle Bay. Its vast and glorious setting created pivotal backdrops for movies like Ryan’s Daughter (1970), Excalibur (1981), and Far And Away (1992)---but in Ireland it’s famous for its summer surf schools and the 3-meter-high waves that can approach its westerly coastline.

The three Lakes of Killarney and the mountains and woods that surround them make up this beautiful national park. It extends to nearly 25,000 acres, which includes oak, holly, and yew woodlands, and is populated by red deer. The National Park Visitor Centre in town offers an audiovisual presentation that is a good introduction to what you can explore on the signposted self-guiding trails that thread the park.

The heart of the park is Muckross House & Gardens, which is 6 km (4 miles) from Killarney on N71. You can drive, walk, rent a bicycle, or take a traditional jaunting car (pony and a cart) to the house and from there explore this amazing landscape by foot or bicycle.

The air here smells of damp woods and heather moors. The red fruits of the Mediterranean strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) are at their peak in October and November, which is also about the time when the bracken turns rust color, contrasting with the evergreens. In late April and early May, the purple flowers of the rhododendron ponticum put on a spectacular display.

The monks were driven out of this 15th-century Franciscan friary by Oliver Cromwell's army in 1652, but it's amazingly complete (rare among Irish ruins), although roofless. An ancient yew tree rises above the cloisters and breaks out over the abbey walls. Three flights of stone steps allow access to the upper floors and living quarters, where you can visit the cloisters and what was once the dormitory, kitchen, and refectory.

Perhaps the town's most notable historic sight is this 3,000-year-old monument that dates from the early Bronze Age. Sometimes called the Druid Circle, it is within five minutes' walk of the village square (head down Market Street in front of the tourist office). It consists of 15 large stones arranged in a circle around a huge central boulder, which marks a rare Bronze Age burial site.

You reach this roaring, 65-foot-high cascade by a footpath that begins in the parking lot outside the gates of the Muckross Park, 8 km (5 miles) south of Killarney. After your first view of the Torc, which will appear after about a 10-minute walk, it's worth the climb up a long flight of stone steps to the second, less-frequented clearing.