The Munster Gaelic Football final was in Killarney on Sunday afternoon. This is the regional final being contested by neighbouring towns. It was a big deal for the locals.

We did not want to get caught in the crowd of expected 30,000 spectators for the game but got a bit of the feel for the atmosphere with a wander around the town the morning before the match. Killarney’s population is a little more than 14,000 so the visitors wearing team colours were wandering everywhere. We noticed a lot of families.

Repurposed phone booth

The Church of Ireland church.

Killarney House and Gardens.

The forecast rain did not look like it would happen so we went from the car park by the Cathedral towards the west end of the lake.

We stopped for refreshment at Kate Kearney’s Cottage, which is a cafe and in another building, a pub.

The sign says traffic is restricted so we thought no cars unless you lived along the road or had a special permit to drive. We were headed to the Gap of Dunloe, which was about a kilometre away. So we headed out on foot.

A lot of cars as well as horse drawn carts and bicycles passed by us.

After seeing only cows and a few horses this trip, we saw some sheep.

Our turn around point, a cute stone bridge:

View from the bridge:

Looking north:

Looking south towards the Gap of Dunloe:

More sheep:

The road continued

but we turned back to the car.

Caught a bit of Scottish Premiership football on the tv at the Kate Kearney pub before we drove into town. We returned before most of the spectators had left the stadium. Kerry, Killarney’s team, won. We saw some happy people later but everyone, even those in the losing team colours, were well behaved.

Back at the hotel we saw a herd of deer in the park.

Watched a bit of English Premiership football — Arsenal v West Ham, which Arsenal won — to Scott’s pleasure. A last dinner with our friends at the hotel dining room as tomorrow we part ways.