We spent the morning and early afternoon on an the Dingle Peninsula Archeological Tour. Our host was Micheal, an archeologist.

He took our small group to multiple archeological sites around Slea Head and the peninsula. He was extremely knowledgeable about the history of this ancient place. It has Pagan sites that date back to pre-Roman times BC and numerous early Christian sites that were established around the time of St. Patrick, the 4th & early 5th century AD.

This far west area of Ireland is so remote in those times it was very much controlled by individual tribal societies that practiced Paganism. They were likely introduced to Christianity by the Romans that traded with them, but never conquered the area. St. Patrick was likely unable to convert this tribal region to Catholicism due to the resistance by the tribes to being controlled by the Pope. So these numerous Christian colonies existed throughout the remote far west of Ireland. It wasn’t until the 11th or 12th centuries that change occurred and the Catholic and Protestant Churches became dominant.

People lived and worshipped in these rock shelters called Beehive Huts. Many remain throughout western Ireland either whole or partially dismantled.

Michael did a wonderful job explaining this early Irish history and showing us these amazing archeological sites.

Thanks to a good weather day, we were able to see the remote Blasket Islands, which were home to a small group of families until the 1950’s. These islands and the remaining structures can be visited only in the summer months.

We enjoyed another evening at a wonderful restaurant and a local Dingle Pub. Celtic musicians played beautiful Irish music for us and Joan befriended a Cork visitor, Lucy, who happened to be a primary Special Education Teacher. They hit it off quite well, and had some good craic according to Lucy!

We have truly enjoyed our stay in Dingle and are off to Galway tomorrow!