Kerry: the Cornwall of Ireland
A salty-aired fishing town on Ireland’s southwest coast, Dingle punches above its size when it comes to cultural happenings. It’s also the jumping-off point for one of the country’s most epic drives, an Atlantic-hugging loop that takes in hairpin bends, 5,000-year-old sacred sites and even a Star Wars location.
Dingle seems to exert a magnetic pull on creative folk – the latest of these is the Oscar-winning actor Cillian Murphy, who’s just bought a 100-year-old cinema in the boho County Kerry town with his artist wife. They plan to refurb the much-loved site, where the family who ran it for four decades would serve tea and biscuits on a kitchen table beneath the big screen at the Tuesday night movie club. But even before this news, Dingle was already a cultural powerhouse; a place where trad music meets hip-hop and ancient pagan festivals are celebrated as enthusiastically as boundary-pushing art. There’s also a rich heritage of craft, alongside new spins on Irish produce. And not forgetting its 50 pubs… Here’s our insider guide to this wild west wonder.
A highlight in Dingle’s cultural calendar, Other Voices is an annual weekend of song in the stained-glass interior of St James’s church where performers have included Amy Winehouse, Hozier and Little Simz. Nabbing a spot in the pews is the hottest ticket in town, but the eclectic schedule spills out into the pubs and streets; there could be a Kurdish Syrian lute player packing out McCarthy’s bar or a female indie rock band pumping up the crowd at the back of the Bridge House. A little more sedate but just as inspiring, Dingle Lit hosts rousing open-mic poetry nights and sellout sessions with authors such as children’s illustrator Oliver Jeffers and Booker Prize-winning Roddy Doyle (writer of classic modern-Irish novel The Commitments).
Mid-summer's Bealtaine festival draws a multi-gen crowd who bring babies, puppies and all the rest to toe-tap along to Irish music legend Cormac Begley’s concertina amid the wildflowers and native rowan and birch trees of the biodiverse Diseart Garden. The festival culminates in an otherworldly pagan rave, with its masked drummers and Burning Man-style effigy. And for Ireland-wide Culture Night, spoken word could be performed by a modern-day bard standing on a table out the back of Kennedy's, a purple-painted 1930s pub.
The design-led independent stores and galleries that line Dingle’s colourful streets make it a charming place to visit even when there isn’t anything in the diary. Halfway up the hill from the harbour, Crinkle Stores showcases artisanal Dingle Peninsula produce in a black-and-white-tiled space. With its block-colour wall hangings and working looms, Lisbeth Mulcahy Weaver’s Shop is part gallery, part store, part atelier in a listed 19th-century building with original counters and shelves, while Greenlane has been championing contemporary Kerry sculptors and painters since 1992. Artisans based out of town but worth visiting include Holden Leather Goods, tucked away on a woodland site about 3km along the road to Slea Head, and the West Kerry Brewery in the 100-year-old, fire-warmed Ballyferriter pub Tig Bhric.
A few doors along from Crinkle Stores, Bean in Dingle is the place to fuel up on flat whites and cream-cheese-topped cinnamon buns; to satisfy more sweet cravings, pop into Juice for Thought to bag a few packets of Dingle Chocolates’ Ogham Stones peanut truffles with smoked sea salt. Handmade in a workshop at the edge of town, they’re insanely delicious. Fish and chips are ubiquitous on Dingle menus, but the best version is to be found at hole-in-the-wall Reel Dingle, where they come neatly wrapped in paper. For a sitdown affair, Michelin-listed Solas serves small plates cooked up from its own organic garden, alongside locally caught fish and Spanish cured meats.
It might be impossible to complete a pub crawl of each of Dingle’s 50 pubs (that’s one for every 30 residents), but for spit-and-sawdust authenticity and ‘craic’ with the locals, it’s hard to beat Dick Macks, an 1800s leather shop meets higgledy-piggledy bar, and Foxy John's, for live music and its side hustle as a hardware store. After an evening sipping stout, Pax – a little bit out of town – is the best boutique stay around, with widescreen vistas of the green-on-blue bay.
Dingle is also the gateway to the crags and cliffs of the Dingle Peninsula, whose highlights include Slea Head drive, taking in stops such as zigzagging Dunquin pier, where boats hop to the uninhabited Blasket Islands, and perfectly scooped out beaches like Coumeenoole. For a leg-stretching hike, Mount Brandon rewards climbers with views of the whole peninsula on a good day and misty Mordor scenes on a bad one. In the tiny harbour of Brandon, there's excellent pub grub and creamy pints at Murphy's and the quirky Blue Boat to stay in. Brave souls might even jump off the pier for a sea plunge – completing their full west Kerry immersion.
Grainne McBride
