The Ring of Kerry and the Ring of Beara from Kenmare

One of the quiet advantages of basing yourself in Kenmare is the road junction the town sits on. Two of Ireland's great coastal drives meet here: the famous Ring of Kerry, which passes through on its way north over Moll's Gap, and the quieter, wilder Ring of Beara, which loops out to the south and west. Most visitors do the first and never find the second. If you have two days, do both, and if you have one, the choice comes down to what you are after.

The Ring of Kerry

The Ring of Kerry is the headline drive, a roughly 180 km loop around the Iveragh Peninsula that most people join at Killarney and run clockwise or anticlockwise through Sneem, Waterville, Cahersiveen and Killorglin. From Kenmare you are already on it, and the town is one of the nicer places to start or finish. The scenery is genuinely spectacular, but so is the traffic: this is the road the tour coaches run, and in summer they set the pace on the narrow sections. The old trick is to drive against the coach flow or start very early. From Kenmare the run north over Moll's Gap, a high mountain pass with big views down toward Killarney's lakes, is one of the best stretches, and it is worth doing even if you do not fancy the whole loop.

The Ring of Beara

The Ring of Beara is the one to know about. It loops around the Beara Peninsula immediately south of Kenmare, and it is everything the Ring of Kerry is without the coaches: rugged, empty, and closer to the old character of the south-west, with small villages, open moorland, standing stones and long sea views. The scenic highlight is the Healy Pass, a narrow road that climbs and switchbacks over the spine of the peninsula between Adrigole and Lauragh, and on a clear day it is one of the finest short drives in the country. Even a half-loop from Kenmare out over the Healy Pass and back gives you the best of it in an afternoon.

A drive that crosses two counties

One honest point that guidebooks often gloss over: the Ring of Beara is not a Kerry drive so much as a Kerry-and-Cork one. Kenmare and the northern shore of the peninsula sit in Co. Kerry, but the far end of the loop, around Castletownbere, Allihies and the Dursey Island cable car, lies in Co. Cork. It makes no practical difference to the driving, but it is worth knowing so the geography makes sense as the county boundary comes and goes under your wheels.

How to drive them

Both loops are on narrow, slow mountain and coast roads, so the golden rule is to allow far more time than the distance suggests, and to fuel up in Kenmare before you set out, as services on the Beara in particular are thin. Take the passes, Moll's Gap and the Healy Pass, in good light and settled weather, because low cloud can rob you of the views that are the whole point. Keep an eye on the fuel gauge, pull in at the marked viewpoints rather than stopping on blind bends, and be patient with oncoming traffic on the single-track sections; a reversing contest with a coach is a Kerry rite of passage best avoided by giving way early.

Where to stop

Neither loop is a race, so build in stops. On the Kerry ring, Sneem is the obvious first village west of Kenmare, a pretty spot for a coffee, and the Moll's Gap viewpoint and the nearby Ladies View over the Killarney lakes are worth the pause on the northern run. On the Beara, the small harbour villages of Lauragh and Ardgroom on the Kerry side, and Castletownbere and Allihies on the Cork side, break the drive, and the top of the Healy Pass has parking and a roadside chapel with the whole peninsula laid out below. Take a picnic from Kenmare, since sit-down food on the Beara is sparse and seasonal, and treat every headland pull-in as a reason to get out and look.

Which to choose

If it is your first time in the south-west and you want the classic, drive the Ring of Kerry, or at least the Moll's Gap section, and accept the traffic. If you have done it before, or you want the quieter, rawer version and a road you will remember, take the Ring of Beara and the Healy Pass. And if you can spare two days from your Kenmare base, do the Kerry ring one day and the Beara the next, which is the version that makes the most of sitting exactly where the two roads meet.