Ireland Trip - Dublin to Killarney

We got up early on Friday and had a delicious full Irish breakfast, with eggs, bacon, chipolatas, black & white pudding, coffee and Darryl included toast and jam. On the road we tried to find the first Megalithic Tomb, on Seefin road. The Tourist Info was definitely Irish, the lady was on the phone to her friend when I arrived, and as she didn't know about the directions she asked her friend. We started to work it out, and the friend called back with instructions, which were, of course, almost the opposite to the Tourist Info lady's! By the time she worked it out, (it took ages), Darryl, waiting in the car, was none too pleased. We drove the directions, but there were Military warning signs up regarding the firing range, so we weren't game to go in. We had pretty much given up when coming the other way, we had to pull over for a local with a horse trailer. Darryl signalled him, and he stopped to help but I have got to say that his instructions were even worse. Needless to say, we gave it a miss and started towards the next destination on our 'To-See' list. Along the way, I noticed on the map, a ditched standing stone ring (Castleruddery embanked stone circle). It seemed large (well it WAS on the map), and we saw the turning sign (with no distances I might add), so drove up the road. After a while we hadn't seen it, but came up to a small shop and a pub, so I went into the pub for directions. We had only just gone past it, so we turned around, and it was no wonder we missed it...the sign was missing (only the pole remained), and it was a turn up and off the road. A short walk took us to it, and it was pretty amazing...hard to believe that people could have transported rocks that big. After this we headed towards Carlow and, by a strange quirk of luck, just happened to be on the back-road which passed the Brownshill Megolithic Tomb (Dolmen). A short walk in, under a sprinkle of rain, and we were able to view it, along with 3 other visitors. All countries have their challenges for us, and here it is definitely a lack of parking, picnic facilities and NO public toilets obvious in towns (also see the narrow town roads in the last photo!) We got to Carlow, where Darryl waited for me (in a 15 min parking zone) while I went to the tourist info and made use of their facilities. We also stopped at Carlow Castle ruins (13^th century), which was quite pretty, but the parking situation was grim, so Darryl stayed with the car. Still no toilet facilities for Darryl! We saw a couple of signs which said “Picnic Area” but didn't see the area. Eventually, when on the motorway, we stopped at a parking layby, which really stank of urine...it was very off-putting while trying to eat our lunch! Obviously we are not the only ones having problems with these things. We continued on, and eventually arrived in Killarney around 5:30pm. We found a Tescos and did a little shopping, then made for our Hotel – Travel Inn Killarney. Here Darryl crashed while I went to the in-house pub for dinner.