Southward bound to Glengarriff.

Driving up through the mighty Caha Mountains from  Kenmare to Glengariff. 

 It is worth clicking on each photograph and video and watching them on full screen to appreciate the splendour of this scenery.

We travelled this road by car. Imagine Charlotte Bronte and Arthur in a covered carriage, but a carriage none the less.

From Killarney to Glengarriff via Kenmare.

                                                 

Charlotte and Arthur were now ready to head even further south in Ireland, leaving Killarney behind and heading next for Glengarriff. We know this is their route as Charlotte wrote to her friend Ellen Nussey on 28th July 1854 from Dublin,

"We have been travelling about, with only just such cessation as enabled me to answer a few of the many notes of congratulations forwarded... We have been to Killarney, Glen Garriffe, Tarbert, Tralee, Cork, and are now once more in Dublin again, on our way home, where we hope to arrive next week."

From the jumbled order in which Charlotte lists where they have been - the correct order was Tarbert, Tralee, Killarney, Glengarriff and Cork, and also the way she writes in her letter to Ellen -

"I shall make no effort to describe the scenery through which we have passed. Some parts have far exceeded all I ever imagined. Of course, much pleasure has sprung from this, and more,..."

we can see that she must have had very little time to write at any of her stops -"I shall make no effort "-she wrote to Ellen.  

I too encountered this same situation. I had fully intended to write this blog as I went along on this wonderful Welsh and Irish journey, following in Charlotte's and Arthur's honeymoon footsteps. But there was simply so little time and / or energy left at the end of each day, so busy were we travelling, seeing, experiencing, drinking in the sights etc. 

I was surprised, prior to undertaking the 'honeymoon odyssey' that Charlotte, who is one of our greatest writers, wrote so little about her honeymoon.  However, having followed in her wake, I now fully understand why, at the end of each day of travelling and sightseeing, she simply could "make no effort"...to do so! 

Furthermore, we were  travelling in a car and able to go at much greater speed and in greater comfort than Charlotte and Arthur who travelled by steam train, paddle steamer and horse and carriage, often exposed to the elements. We were pretty tired at the end of each day, imagine how Charlotte and Arthur must have felt after their journeys!

So we can forgive Charlotte for not leaving us more clues as to precisely where they went to on honeymoon, where they stayed, what they saw and how they felt about it . We have no words from her to - "describe the scenery through which we have passed" save to say she was impressed with what she saw, both in Ireland and Wales. It was for this very reason we decided that, if we wanted to know what Charlotte and Arthur had seen and experienced, we would have to go and see it all with our own eyes and hear with our own ears what they too would have experienced and enjoyed.

And, oh my goodness, what we saw was quite simply divine on this next leg of their honeymoon route. What is now known as the Killarney National Park was absolutely glorious with mountains, rivers, woods and lakes. However, as we set off in the direction of Kenmare and then went further south and up and up and up into the mountains, the views were quite simply breathtaking!! We were driving up the Caha Pass surrounded by the Caha mountains. My oh my...it was just fabulous.

But I am getting ahead of myself! The journey on leaving Killarney is quite simply divine as well. We stopped off, not long after our departure, to quietly watch the gently lapping water on the Upper Lake and admire the mountains as a backdrop. Arthur and Charlotte may well have stood by this lake during their Killarney stay, but they definitely would have driven past it in their carriage as they headed in the direction of Kenmare.

                                            

                                           

Enjoying watching the lapping waters on the Upper Lake as we headed off to Kenmare leaving beautiful Killarney behind. Click on the full screen option to appreciate the scenery.

We continued up the N71 to admire the vista from what is known as Ladies' View at 12 miles (19 kms) from Killarney. It was here in 1861, during Queen Victoria's royal visit to the area, that her ladies-in- waiting were so taken with the view that it was named after them. It is a spectacular view. I should imagine that Charlotte and Arthur enjoyed seeing it too as they made their way to Kenmare.

Ladies' View - a scenic viewpoint on the Ring of Kerry

Ladies' View

                                         

Charlotte and Arthur 2022 style?



Views on the way to Kenmare

On the way to Kenmare.

Colourful Kenmare

Holy Cross Church Kenmare built between 1862-64 after Charlotte and Arthur's visit.

The journey from Kenmare to Glengarrif can be seen below. 

Sometimes pictures paint a thousand words. Click on each photograph to enlarge and to better take in the views!

                                       

                                       

                                        

I was in awe of the mountain scenery but also in awe of Charlotte, Arthur and their fellow travellers. Just imagine them travelling up into these stunning mountains in a horse drawn carriage. 

                                       

As we neared Glengarriff one passes out of County Kerry and into County Cork.

We travelled by car. Imagine this route on unmade roads by horse and carriage in 1854.

The August heather in blossom - reminding me of the Haworth moors. It was probably a little too early for Charlotte to have seen the heather in late July but it would have been a reminder of her beloved Yorkshire moors.

The view of Bantry Bay from the Caha Mountain Pass.

                                       

Bantry Bay from the Caha Mountain Pass.

I am sure Charlotte and Arthur savoured this view of Bantry Bay as they drove down in their carriage from the Caha Mountains - we certainly did.

Our next stop would be Glengarriff itself. This journey had been quite spectacular with long views to the most beautiful of mountains followed by the vista to Bantry Bay itself.

I shall leave you with the words of two other 19th century travellers and writers who came before us and who also enjoyed this same journey. Lord John Manners MP wrote in his book "Notes of an Irish Tour" written in 1846 and published in 1881:

"The twenty miles from Kenmare to Glengariff form the grandest road, barring the Alpine passes, that I know: an ascent of four English miles, winding up through dark-brown hills, with no sign of human habitation about them, brings you to a tunnel six hundred feet long; on emerging from which, the head of Glengariff opens upon you, with two blue little lakes perched among the mountains at that great altitude staring you in the face. Thence at every step you descend, the scenery becomes more and more beautiful each turn of the road revealing some hitherto unseen charm, with Bantry Bay and the Atlantic ever bounding the view."

William Makepeace Thackeray spent four months touring Ireland in 1842 and wrote his book "The Irish Sketchbook". He did the journey in reverse, travelling from Glengarriff to Kenmare and then to Killarney. He wrote:

"The journey from Glengariff to Kenmare is one of astonishing beauty and I have seen Killarney since, and I am sure that Glengariff loses nothing by comparison with this most famous of lakes. Rock, wood and sea stretch around the traveller - a thousand delightful pictures; the landscape at first is wild without being fierce, immense woods and plantations enhancing the valleys - beautiful streams to be seen everywhere."

He also wrote: 

                           

"What sends picturesque tourists to the Rhine and Saxon Switzerland? Within five miles round the pretty inn of Glengariff there is a country of the magnificence of which no pen can give an idea...I would like to be a great prince, and bring a train of painters over to make, if they could, ...a set of  pictures of the place...The scene was exceedingly wild and picturesque, and I took a sketch-book out and began to draw".

Alas, unlike Thackeray and Charlotte Bronte my drawing skills are pretty none existent. So I shall leave you with a video of the scenery. It really is worth viewing it on the full screen option!

                                        If you would like to follow in the footsteps of Charlotte and Arthur from Kenmare to Glengarriff you can watch this You Tube video of someone doing the same but in a car. Imagine this journey in a horse and carrriage!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPRA0OjJOAM

Our next stop will be Glengarriff.