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Kerry: A place made for tourists
Travel Courier - November 23, 1989

All Irish tours lead to Kerry, a county of lakes, mountains and an increasing number of tourist shops. But the people who visit yearly don't come solely for the handmade woollen sweaters, Irish china, crystal and linen. They come to play the championship golf courses in Killarney, Waterville, Ballybunion, Tralee and Lahinch or cycle through mountain towns.

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For many people the best and least exhausting way to see the county's natural beauties is to take a four-hour bus tour of the Ring of Kerry. The locals say the Ring is only for tourists but in fact, it's one of the few ways to get to hard-to-reach areas and catch an eyeful of Kerry's clean waters and green hills.

Sneem, voted the tidiest town in Ireland a few years back, is the nicest town on the Ring with its pastel-coloured houses and few souvenir shops.

Casey's Cove is a small beach town on the Ring where, if you're fortunate enough, you will see cows grazing on the sandy beach, feet away from eager sun tanners.

One of the last stops on the Ring of Kerry is the four-house village of Black Valley, the last place in Ireland to get electricity back in 1986.

Second only to the vulgar commercialism of Blarney, in county Cork, is Killarney, the major and most expensive town in Kerry.

Unlike Blarney, where the major attraction is the Blarney stone (there were fears that tourists would stop coming to kiss the stone for fear of catching AIDS), Killarney caters to the shopper and those seeking a festive nightlife singing traditional Irish songs at ugly tourist bars, seemingly popular with Germans and Americans.

Kerry's newest attraction, located 10 minutes from Killarney, on Castle Island, is Crag Cave, which opened to the public in early June. It's an ancient fossil cave system with beautiful passages and a maze of carved tunnels and chambers.

One of the longest cave systems in Ireland (3,183 metres), Crag Cave was discovered in 1981 by Welsh diver Martyn Farr on land owned by a local family, but building it into a showcase wasn't seriously considered until 1987.

Guided tours explain how the endless trails of stalactites and stalagmites were formed by water dripping into the cave thousands of years ago. Because it takes more than 1,000 years for a stalactite or stalagmite to grow, cavers have paid close attention to cordon off the more delicate crystals from visitors' reach.

A well-orchestrated lighting system, developed by a top Irish theatrical designer, highlights the many cave features and extraordinary crystal formations.

The cave opens into a large chamber with magnificent stalactites. Streams flow inside the cave, through various water-worn passages and chambers christened Aerobes Ecstasy, Divers Delight, Minis Tirith and Balrog's Bathtub by the original cavers inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien's, Lord of the Rings.

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