Things to do
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Gap of Dunloe
A glacial breach between the Purple Mountain and the MacGillycuddy's Reeks, eleven kilometres of single track past five lakes, traditionally done by pony trap up and open boat back through the three lakes to Ross Castle. Cars are strongly discouraged in summer and the road is genuinely one vehicle wide.
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Killarney National Park
Over a hundred square kilometres of lake, oak and yew woodland and mountain, the first national park in the state and a UNESCO biosphere reserve, holding the only wild red deer herd with continuous descent in Ireland. Entry is free and the Muckross and Ross Castle gates are both walkable from the town.
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Ladies View
A lay-by on the Kenmare road at the head of the valley, named for Queen Victoria's ladies-in-waiting, looking back down the whole chain of the three lakes. It is the single best roadside view in the park and there is a cafe at it.
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Muckross House
A Tudor Revival mansion of 1843 on the middle lake, refitted at ruinous cost for a visit by Queen Victoria in 1861, with the traditional farms behind it worked as they were in the 1930s. The gardens and the walk to Torc are free and the house is ticketed.
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Ross Castle
A fifteenth-century O'Donoghue tower house on a spur into the lower lake, the last place in Munster to fall to Cromwell's forces, taken in 1652 when boats were dragged overland to attack from the water. Boats to Innisfallen Island leave from the jetty beside it.
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Torc Waterfall
A twenty-metre cascade in oak woods five kilometres south of the town, two hundred metres from the car park on a made path, with a stepped climb above it to a viewpoint over the lower lake. It is the easiest thing in the park to reach and correspondingly busy.
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Carrauntoohil
The highest mountain in Ireland at a thousand and thirty-eight metres, climbed most often by the Devil's Ladder from Cronin's Yard, which is a loose and eroded gully rather than a path. Cloud sits on it most days and the navigation off the summit plateau is the part that catches people out.
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Innisfallen Island
A wooded island in the lower lake holding a monastery founded in 640 where the Annals of Innisfallen were written, and where Brian Boru is said to have been schooled. It is reached only by boat from Ross Castle and there is nobody on it.
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The Europe Hotel and Resort
A lakeside hotel on the Fossa shore facing the Reeks across the water, with a spa built out towards the lake and its own equestrian centre. It is the country-resort option five kilometres from the town.