
I actually ended up going to Connemara twice – first on a day trip with friends I met at a pub crawl, and second with people I met while hitchhiking with 2 girls I’d met at my hostel! Both of these stories make me sound way more adventurous than I actually am LOL. BUT it is pretty easy to meet people while traveling solo!
But I digress – this is about my solo bike ride through Killarney National Park, not Connemara.

First things first: There is no entrance fee for Killarney National Park! In fact, all of the national parks in Ireland allow you to enter free of charge. In the words of Lenny Pepperbottom, How neat is that?
Pretty neat, especially since I was 23 and pretty darn broke.




Because I was too broke to rent a car and walking wasn’t an option since Killarney is pretty big, I decided to rent a bike.


And I was lucky – the clouds parted pretty much right after I rolled into the park, and I had really nice weather the rest of the day. Well, except for when I was on the very top of Torc Mountain, but more on that later…

ROSS CASTLE

You can only go inside as part of a guided tour, but I thought it was very worth it. The tour was 45 minutes and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m not usually a huge fan of guided tours but this was awesome. There’s also an exhibit you can peruse inside while you wait as the tours are only first come, first serve and run every 15 minutes or so.


It’s also just such a beautiful setting.
There’s a place to lock your bike outside the castle, too, so that wasn’t an issue.
ROSS CASTLE LOOP

MUCKROSS ABBEY

TORC WATERFALL

I also started to walk some of the trails nearby, but didn’t go too far before turning around.
MUCKROSS HOUSE


TORC MOUNTAIN

I am so so glad I asked, because I hadn’t stumbled upon Torc Mountain during my (very brief) research and it ended up being my favorite thing in Killarney NP!


I ended up doing what I always do – asking people walking their dogs where to go, as I figured they must be locals and *hopefully* knew the park well. I had to ask several different people to make sure I was still going in the right direction and the last woman I asked even walked part way with me! She said she would have done the whole hike as she’d done it before, but she had to get to an event that night. Did I mention Irish people are seriously the nicest??



And since I’d started the hike so late in the day (it was now about 6 or 7PM) the trail was empty! I only came across two groups of people making their way down the mountain. It was both awesome and a little eerie, especially since I didn’t have data as I’d mentioned before, and no one knew where I was. LOL but also not really. I don’t recommend doing this – just pay for the damn SIM card, they’re really never that expensive. Only surviving off of wifi for 1.5 months while I traveled alone was seriously one of the dumbest things I’ve done.



I reached the top around 7 or 8PM and was only able to enjoy the views for a few minutes before it suddenly started to rain and then POUR. Luckily I had my trusty rain jacket with me (as always in Ireland) but it freaked me out a little since I’m from California and not used to ~WeAtHeR~. I panicked that there might be a thunderstorm, and again – no one knew where I was – so I literally ran back down the mountain.




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