The small fishing and market town of Dingle, County Kerry, Ireland ( "Daingean Ui Chuis" in Irish and "An Daingean" on direction signs) is the gateway to the West of Dingle, a landscape rich in many heritages: language, ancient & modern history, geology, peoples, wildlife, birdlife, fauna & flora. Although the Dingle Peninsula (Corca Dhuibhne - from the name of the goddess) is a single place as shown on the map, however there are distinct differences in each place within it. We can divide it around Dingle Town as East of Dingle and West of Dingle
This web site aims to help the visitor wondering 'Why go West of Dingle?' or thinking 'Surely a day trip will suffice it is so small an area'.
Dingle is a great base for doing West of Dingle, but there is plenty of accommodation further West. As well as many small named hamlets, larger townlands are also named on the maps. When the road signs were changed to kilometers the opportunity was taken to change the places signed to their Gaelic names. i.e "Ventry" is now signed as "Ceann Tra", this emphasises that the region is a Gaeltacht, a native Irish speaking area where Kerry Irish is spoken by many, although everyone is bi-lingual, so the visitor will have no problems with speaking English or American.
Whereas it was Ryan’s Daughter that brought the modern sightseer to Dingle, and Fungi the Dolphin that hooked many a visitor to return, Dingle, post "Celtic Tiger", is exhibiting the swiftness of foot that has stood it in good stead through the ages. You can see this in the regular 'special events' whether a small group of visitors from a twin town or crowds of people from all over Ireland and further afield for the October Food Festival, Dingle maintains an Irish welcome throughout the year. Watch out for news of the Film Festival where Hollywood and LAX meet Kerry International Airport (KIR). And in April 2010 the first Pan Celtic Festival brought Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, French Britanny and Ireland together for the first time.
If you are looking for great places for Sea Angling then heading west of Dingle brings you to Ventry Beach where fishing from the strand is a delight even if nothing is caught.
Follow the links on the left side menu, and watch highlights on video below, to learn more about why and when you should BeThere!
