Ramble
Quest - The Dingle Way
Around Dingle, St. Stephen's Day, the day after Christmas, is a pretty big holiday. I'd heard a bit about this from people while hitchhiking around. I seem to get a lot of different stories about it, but none of the locals are able to give me a very accurate description of St. Stephen's Day history. In fact, none of them actually knew who St. Stephen was, but most were able to relate vague stories of how straw-masked "Wren Boys" are involved with the proceedings.
I only get the full story after looking things up much later. St. Stephen is another one of those saints who got whacked (by stoning), apparently betrayed from his hiding place by a wren. Originally, wrens were killed and carried on poles as part of the procession. Dingle has a parade with many of the participants dressed as straw-headed Wren Boys, who are something like Mummers, but even more people today dress up in spooky Halloween-type costumes.
Andrea, a nice German woman joins me for a mini pub crawl, which is just as popular with the parading locals, especially as the weather is icky. Dingle has some very cozy pubs too, but they get increasingly busy. Groups of Wren Boys (who are actually both male and female) march in, playing music, or actually just making a lot of banging noise, and demand money for charity. Some of them carry a token cage with a fake wren bird inside. All in all, it's a fun holiday, although as the night grows on the crowd gets less cultural and more drunken.
I spend the next week hiking the Dingle Way, which makes a loop around the peninsula. However, I do the vast majority of it as a section hiker, using Dingle and later Dunquin, as bases. While the Dingle Peninsula is not as wild as the Kerry Way's Iveragh, it is equally as beautiful. Also, even though the Dingle Way track is a mess, poorly marked and often a muddy, wet slog (as an aside, all of the Irish trails are poor in comparison to those in most other places) I can still say that this was one of the highlights of my time in Ireland.
I also hike the Pilgrims' Route, which is a shorter track that hits many of the historical early Christian sites on the western end of the peninsula. It passes by Kilmalkedar Church, the Gallarus Oratory, and St. Brendan's House, among several other forts, sundials, and cemeteries, which seem to be unusually plentiful in this region. I can highly recommend this hike as well, even though, as I've explained, the track is bad.
I hitchhike in or out to the Dingle Way as I continue my circuit. As it turns out, I have mostly perfect weather during these days, but there were a few wet afternoons when I was glad to sleep indoors. I have the great fortune to arrive in Dunquin, Europe's most westernmost city, just when the hostel there is re-opening from Christmas holidays. Dunquin is also the home of the venerable Kruger's Pub, with photos from "Ryan's Daughter" and "Far and Away", both of which were filmed near here.
Beaches, hilltops, dramatic coastline, ancient ruins -- the Dingle Way certainly has much to offer. Once I stay from the path to climb one of the peaks on the western end, where I admire the perfect view of the Blasket Islands, and the impossibly sloped shoreline. Large gannets slowly circle under rainbows, and above strikingly green fields. Here, under a rocky crag, I miraculously find a kan-kan, a small, beautifully shaped crystal. I carry it with me as a reminder of this wonderous spot.