Touring Beara for 8 Days. And I am sure I saw hardly any of it!

An astrologer from Dublin told me Beara would be expansive for my spirit — I was writing a novel. He was right.

I’ve seen my fair share of Ireland, and everyone had somewhat shared comments about Beara — remote, fewer tourists, roads too narrow for buses — most of which sounded great. Solitude and beauty. Burger and pint.

And it was all true, except no one warned me that it had a different kind of beauty from all the others I had seen, from Donegal to Kerry, Moher to Glendalough.

But for all I saw, I somehow feel I missed even more.

Heard about the Dzogchen Buddhist Center and went; the silent meditation garden is a carpet of green that goes to the cliff’s edge. An hour there is hypnotic.

Allihies is full of color, one street, a few blocks, O’Neill’s pub in the center and is said to have good food; a very good breakfast and lunch restaurant near the copper mine museum down the street. And a real salad! (Greens are hard to find).

The Beara Barista food truck down by the beach has great food — lunch and breakfast. The coffee is very good.

There was another food truck in town, near O’Neill’s. I had their chicken sandwich, calamari, and buffalo burger…. all mediocre.

I drove one route in particular — why? It was magical; the terrain would move from the usual brown sloping mounds of mountains with their green and brown set off by clouds, to the coastline to high rocky cliffs looking out to the famous and mystical Skellig Michael. And finally, the endless curves of the road as the Micah-laden schist stone pushed through the earth like shark fins.

It was an easy loop that gave me Eyeries and a few other small towns, too.

The route covered a lot but missed even more; and for all I saw, all the beauty my eyes could take in, I realize now I barely touched the place. I guess I’ll be going back.