We left the Burren with a long day of driving ahead, taking the scenic route through Conor Pass (Ireland’s highest road with vistas of lakes and green rocky valleys) and Slea Head Drive (more narrow roads) to the Dingle Peninsula, the farthest western point on the Irish mainland.
Even without the beauty of its coast-line, the drive on the Ring of Dingle is fascinating for its abandoned villages, ring forts, beehive huts and ancient churches.
We first saw famine cottages (so named because the Irish had just walked away from their homes, often evicted for not paying their rent to the mostly English land-owners) in the Connemara. The famine cottages are prevalent along the Western region of Ireland including the Burren and Dingle. Some historical accounts suggest the English response to the famine in Ireland was deliberate genocide; factors include a law by the English parliament prohibiting the import of grains, and an adherence to a philosophy that hand-outs should be worked for. Employment was sometimes created in meaningless endeavours to allow the weakened Irish to work for their food and many people died of starvation while waiting for overdue payment.