Arcadia Ireland

Over this past weekend some of our students journeyed to the southwest of Ireland for our second co-curricular of the Fall 2019 semester! Students attending Arcadia programs all across the island of Ireland met and departed from Cork Saturday morning to drive to Killarney National Park, the oldest national park in Ireland! It was another rainy Irish day but we were determined to make the best of it and enjoy our time exploring the park which contains over 25,000 acres. 

After our journey from Cork, we made our way to Muckross House where we met our walking guide, Julie. She led us by the lake and pointed out the Tomies Mountain and Carrauntoohil mountain (the tallest mountain in Ireland). We then made our way to Torc Waterfall which lies at the base of Torc Mountain in the park. The students were then led to Muckross Abbey where they were given time to explore the ruins of this structure. The abbey was founded in 1448 and contains a church, square tower, vaulted cloister, square courtyard, and a graveyard. 

After exploring the park on foot we set off to Killarney town to meet our guides for our jaunting car tour. We set off via horse and buggy with our lovely horses Gypsy and Ruby to see the opposite side of the park from where we were hiking earlier. During our journey we spotted the two types of deer that live in the park: the Red and Japanese sika deer, and the Kerry cattle. Our guides dropped us off at Ross Castle where we were given time to explore the 15th century castle in the park. By this point, we were met with beautiful blue skies so that we could take in the beauty of the landscape that we were exploring. 

Lastly, we set out on a waterbus with Killarney Lake Tours to embark on a scenic tour of Lough Leane, Killarney’s largest lake. During the tour we cruised past the monastic ruins of Inishfallen Island, O’Sullivan Cascade, and several mountain peaks surrounding the lake. The clear blue skies was a perfect way to end our day of touring Killarney National Park. It is definitely worth exploring in both rain or shine, and could even be made into a weekend getaway as opposed to a day trip! For more information on what the park contains click the link here.