The Iveragh Peninsula () is located in

County Kerry County Kerry ( gle, Contae Chiarraí) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and forms part of the province of Munster. It is named after the Ciarraige who lived in part of the present county. The population of the co ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

. It is the largest

peninsula A peninsula (; ) is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most, but not all of its borders. A peninsula is also sometimes defined as a piece of land bordered by water on three of its sides. Peninsulas exist on a ...

in southwestern

. A mountain range, the

MacGillycuddy's Reeks , photo=MacGuillycuddy's Reeks.jpg , photo_caption= , country=Ireland , country1= , location = County Kerry , region = Munster , region_type = Provinces of Ireland , parent= , border= , length_km=19 , length_orientation=East–West ...

, lies in the centre of the peninsula.

Carrauntoohil Carrauntoohil or Carrauntoohill ( ; ga, Corrán Tuathail , meaning "Tuathal's sickle") is the highest mountain in Ireland at . It is on the Iveragh Peninsula in County Kerry, close to the centre of Ireland's highest mountain range, MacGillycu ...

, its highest mountain, is also the highest peak in Ireland.

Geography

Towns on the peninsula include

Killorglin Killorglin () is a town in County Kerry, Ireland. As of the 2016 CSO census, the town's population was 2,199. Killorglin is on the Ring of Kerry tourist route, and annual events include the August Puck Fair festival, which starts with the crow ...

Cahersiveen Cahersiveen (), sometimes Cahirciveen, is a town on the N70 national secondary road in County Kerry, Ireland. As of the 2016 CSO census, the town had a population of 1,041. Geography Cahersiveen is on the slopes of 376-metre-high Bentee, an ...

, Ballinskelligs, Portmagee, Waterville, Caherdaniel,

Sneem Sneem () is a village situated on the Iveragh Peninsula (part of the Ring of Kerry), in County Kerry, in the southwest of Ireland. It lies on the estuary of the River Sneem. National route N70 runs through the town. While the 2016 census recor ...

and

Kenmare Kenmare () is a small town in the south of County Kerry, Ireland. The name Kenmare is the anglicised form of ''Ceann Mara'', meaning "head of the sea", referring to the head of Kenmare Bay. Location Kenmare is located at the head of Kenmare Ba ...

. The Ring of Kerry, a popular

tourist Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism ...

trail, circles the coastlines as well as the Skellig Ring, beginning and ending at

Killarney Killarney ( ; ga, Cill Airne , meaning 'church of sloes') is a town in County Kerry, southwestern Ireland. The town is on the northeastern shore of Lough Leane, part of Killarney National Park, and is home to St Mary's Cathedral, Ross Cast ...

, just east of the peninsula.

Valentia Island Valentia Island () is one of Ireland's most westerly points. It lies off the Iveragh Peninsula in the southwest of County Kerry. It is linked to the mainland by the Maurice O'Neill Memorial Bridge at Portmagee. A car ferry also departs from ...

lies off the northwestern tip of the peninsula. It is connected with the peninsula by a bridge at Portmagee village, but it can also be reached by ferry crossing between Renard Point on the mainland and Knightstown on the island. The

Skellig Islands The Skellig Islands ( ga, Na Scealaga), once known as "the Skellocks", are two small, steep, and rocky islands lying about west of Bolus Head on the Iveragh Peninsula in County Kerry, Ireland. The larger of the two is Skellig Michael (also kn ...

lie about 12 kilometres (7.5 statute miles or 6.4 nautical miles) off the west coast and are known for their monastic buildings and bird life. Since 2015 the filming of

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various film ...

has brought many new tourists to the area. Kerry Geopark is a community initiative on the Iveragh Peninsula which aims to promote geotourism in this area of high geological importance. Some of the interest features are Kenmare Bay (a drowned river valley or ria), signs of past glaciation and volcanic activity and 400-million-year-old fossilised tetrapod tracks. Cloghanecarhan, a ringfort with

ogham Ogham ( Modern Irish: ; mga, ogum, ogom, later mga, ogam, label=none ) is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the early Irish language (in the "orthodox" inscriptions, 4th to 6th centuries AD), and later the Old Irish langu ...

stone, is a

National Monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a spe ...

; as is Leacanabuaile, a stone

ringfort Ringforts, ring forts or ring fortresses are circular fortified settlements that were mostly built during the Bronze Age up to about the year 1000. They are found in Northern Europe, especially in Ireland. There are also many in South Wale ...

(cashel). Loher Cashel, a stone ringfort (''caiseal'') is located at the western edge of Iveragh. The Iveragh Peninsula has also been home to the Kerry International Dark-Sky Reserve since 2014. Beach Rossbeigh in Dingle Bay Kerry Ireland

Beach Rossbeigh in Dingle Bay Kerry Ireland

Gaeltacht

The Iveragh Gaeltacht or ''Gaeltacht Uíbh Ráthaigh'' is one of the smallest of the

Gaeltacht ( , , ) are the districts of Ireland, individually or collectively, where the Irish government recognises that the Irish language is the predominant vernacular, or language of the home. The ''Gaeltacht'' districts were first officially reco ...

s. The main town is Baile an Sceilg and smaller villages and townlands include Dún Géagáin, Cíllin Liath, Lóthar and Cuan an Chaisleáin. It is sparsely populated and According to the 2016 Census, there were 1,753 people over the age of three living in the Iveragh Gaeltacht, With only 6.9% claiming to speak Irish on a daily basis outside the education system. This makes it the 5th weakest

out of 26 in Ireland by rate of daily speakers. The Iveragh Gaeltacht was one of the strongest in the country at one point. People of all classes spoke the language, with over 93% of the population monolingual Irish speakers in the 1850s. The entire Peninsula was designated as a

when they were first drawn in the 1920s. By the 1980s the percentage of people able to speak Irish in the official Gaeltacht area that was drawn in 1956 was around 60% and has remained at about that level ever since. A comprehensive linguistic study of the

s published in 2007 recommended that the Iveragh Gaeltacht be categorized as a class C Gaeltacht. The percentage of daily speakers along with the population have been falling consistently. Between 1956 and 2011 the population of the Iveragh Gaeltacht declined from 3,036 to 1,795. A decrease of 41%. This is Despite a 67% increase of the Irish population in that same timeframe. Many of the townlands in the centre of the peninsula where much of the

is located are uninhabitated. The lack of basic services is cited as one of the main reasons for the dramatic decline in population and by extension the irish speaking population. The lack of many

Gaelscoil A Gaelscoil (; plural: ''Gaelscoileanna'') is an Irish language-medium school in Ireland: the term refers especially to Irish-medium schools outside the Irish-speaking regions or Gaeltacht. Over 50,000 students attend Gaelscoileanna at primary an ...

eanna in the area is probably another reason for the decline of the Irish language. "Comhchoiste Ghaeltacht Uíbh Ráthaigh" is a community group established in 1998 to act as an umbrella for the development groups in the 5 Gaeltacht areas on the Iveragh Peninsula. The organisation is involved in many things including promoting the Irish language and developing community projects.

Prehistoric rock art

The Iveragh Peninsula is host to one of the highest concentrations of Atlantic rock art in Ireland. The art is scattered throughout the peninsula but the greatest prevalence is found in two main clusters, the most notable and well recorded being the adjoining townlands of Derrynablaha and Derreeny near Sneem. The art of these townlands attracted international attention in the 1960’s when Professor Emanuel Anati recorded the art, alongside E. Shee and M.J O’ Kelly.Shee, E. and O’Kelly, M. 1968 The second cluster of rock art is on the adjoining townlands of Coomasaharn, Kealduff Upper and Letter West, near

Glenbeigh Glenbeigh or Glanbehy () is a town and civil parish on the Iveragh peninsula in County Kerry, Ireland. The parish includes Rossbeigh beach, Coomasahran Lake and a number of important rock art sites. Owing to its natural heritage, history and its ...

. These townlands are host to hundreds of individual examples of the Atlantic art form, with new examples being added to the archaeological record regularly by archaeologists and enthusiasts.

Local residents

* Pádraig Ó hÉigeartaigh,

Irish language Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...

poet, (1871–1936)

References

External links

Iveragh Peninsula guide from Frommer's

Iveragh Peninsula at Birdlife International
{{Coord, 51, 53, 46, N, 10, 01, 44, W, region:IE_type:landmark_source:dewiki, display=title Peninsulas of County Kerry