Dingle

Dingle
From Cork I headed to Co. Kerry, completing the final stretch of the southern coast. The drive took me over the Cork & Kerry mountains and down to the coast at Inch, then past some of the most spectacular scenery that I have ever seen - steep mountainsides rising up on one side of the road and sheer cliff faces down to the ocean on the other. Around each mountain I was half expecting to catch a glimpse of Cair Paravel or Minas Tirith hiding in the mist.

My destination was the small town of Dingle, the most westerly town in Europe and filled with traditional musicians.


To make sure I was close to the music again I booked into a hostel in Dingle town. There I made friends with a Canadian hitch hiker called Aaron who works for a charity in California giving support to young people living on the streets and in difficult situations.

While we were getting ready to head out into town to find a music session there was a strong smell of wood smoke in the dormitory, but as there was a log fire downstairs we guessed that it was coming from down there. It was when we stepped outside that we realised that the pub across the road (An Droichead Beag) was on fire! - I think it was just a chimney fire but it was filling the pub with smoke and the fire brigade were there putting it out. As this was one of our choices of venue for traditional sessions we decided to head on down to a pub called O'Flaherty's. When we arrived we were just being told that there'd be no music tonight as 5 musicians walked in... and that was our night sorted!

Bridget (Fiddle & Flute)
That night Killian (the Uilleann piper) gave us a suggestion of a nice hill walk that he thought we might enjoy, so the next day myself, Aaron, and Lacey (a Californian also staying at the hostel) headed out to see what we could find.

At the Top

Lacey & Aaron
When we got to the top we came across six horse riders who were out with one of the stables in town who do tourist horse riding trips in the hills. On our way down we managed to find the stables, which turned out to be run by a lady from Guernsey... myself and Aaron thought that it sounded like fun so decided to give it a go... this was my first time on a horse, it isn't as easy as it looks (and it doesn't look easy anyway)!
By the time we got back to town it was late afternoon so we headed to a cafe for some Irish stew and then got ready for another night of music.

As with every night of the week there were a few pubs in town with a session, so we chose one that we thought we had heard mentioned the night before and waited for a while. Soon a guitarist turned up but he began setting up for a performance rather than a session... we were just considering whether to find somewhere else to go, or to stay and listen, when a local called Philip arrived. As we got chatting to him we were asking him about different places in town which are good for sessions - he said 'sure I'd usually be An Droichead Beag now, there's a good session there, but I burned the place down last night' - apparently as the last to put wood on the fire he is prime suspect!

Philip
After a while we got chatting to the guitarist too... he was getting agitated because his gig should have started already but the fiddle and squeeze box players were delayed on their way over from Dublin... so in true Irish style we decided to have our own mini session while we waited - Just myself, the guitarist, and Philip on whistle.


Philip was telling us that Killian, the Uilleann piper from the night before, makes his own pipes and is considered one of the best makers of Uilleann pipes in the world and that Bridget (fiddle/flute player) is also a very highly regarded musician and that I was very lucky to have found the session at O'Flaherty's.

The Band

Dingle Harbour

Aaron catching a lift