While we truly enjoyed Blarney Castle, Amanda and I were glad to be shed of the traffic of Cork. I have to admit I get a little excitable in heavy traffic and Cork had no shortage of that. Add the whole left side of the road thing and forgetting which side of the car to look out of as I entered incoming traffic and you can just imagine how our sense of inner peace was challenged.
Things got better, though, as we headed toward the Mangerton Mountains and the town of Killarney in Co Kerry.
The word majestic is apropos’ here. I cannot suppose it is the size of the mountains or even the color. Yet there is no mistaking the otherworldly quality of the place that makes you feel you have entered the domain of kings or of the King. There again,was the sense of loneliness that became so familiar to us as we traveled the island. Yet, there was something else too as we drove into Killarney, a sense that somehow God was sharing with us some secret key to His own majesty. Many times as I travelled through Ireland I was struck by the truth that here in this place I was having a unique experience, one I could not have anywhere else in the wide-world.
The questions and truths of Psalm chapter eight seemed to echo through the landscape and somehow the terrain itself called back the answers.
Psalm 8
For the choir director: A psalm of David, to be accompanied by a stringed instrument.
1 O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!
Your glory is higher than the heavens.
2 You have taught children and infants
to tell of your strength,
silencing your enemies
and all who oppose you.
3 When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—
the moon and the stars you set in place—
4 what are mere mortals that you should think about them,
human beings that you should care for them?
5 Yet you made them only a little lower than God
and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You gave them charge of everything you made,
putting all things under their authority—
7 the flocks and the herds
and all the wild animals,
8 the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea,
and everything that swims the ocean currents.
9 O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!
The Mangerton Mountains in Killarney National Forest as seen from our hotel window
Our ride into Killarney
Some walls are made to protect us.
Muckross House
The Mountains seen from the front lawn of Muckross House
The mountains seen from the front lawn of Muckross House
Amanda at Torc Waterfall
Amanda in the Magerton Mountains on the road to Moll’s Gap
Ladie’s View
Lillie-Put 