Day trips from Dingle and Kenmare; also, driving route from Kenmare to Dublin

If you do Ring of Kerry. do try and include a visit to Kerry Cliffs.

Also try and find at least one of the Ring Forts on Ring of Kerry. The three most popular are:

Staigue

Cahergal and Leacanabuaile.

There here is also Loher and Caherdaniel., although I've not visited either of these.

Beara is wonderful much quieter than Ring of Kerry. Do go and find the Hag of Beara - it is decidedly spooky... and if time allows, think about a trip across to Dursey Island on the cable car.

We also loved Sheep’s Head Peninsula - easily done from Kenmare. This is fairly short,possibly just half a day, so you could link it in with a trip to Bantry House and Gardens. (There is also Mizen Head, but we felt this was disappointing compared with the others.)

If you wanted a quieter and more relaxing day, think about Garnish Island reached by ferry from Glengarriff. Their website is here.and more information about the area here.

I've not done the longer route round the coast. We've always taken the route through Cahir and Cashel. If time allows do try and make the detour to Glendalough. It is a wonderful place with its round tower, ruined chapels. Lake and there is opportunity for walking too.

The Skellig Ring Road just west of Portmagee includes the aforementioned Kerry Cliffs and is a very mellow drive since the tour buses don't go out there. Can add more scenic driving if you include a meandering drive along Valencia Island - can catch the ferry from Reenard over to Knightstown. There's a pleasant walk from the western end of the island out to an old Martello Tower which features more picture-postcard views of the Skelligs.
Another vote for Beara - it's gorgeous and worth a day. You can hike in (about 1.5 mi) to the ruins of the deserted famine village of Cummeengeera if you're up for that sort of thing.
On Dingle, there's the very pretty Glanteenasig Forest park on the other side of the peninsula - requiring a drive thru scenic Conor Pass north of Dingle. Nice place for a gentle hike around a pretty little lake and maybe a picnic lunch. You drive thru a sheep paddock to get there.
Time and interest permitting you could return to Dingle via the N86 thru the village of Annascaul where there's a particularly atmospheric little pub called the South Pole Inn - established over 100 years ago by Tom Crean, an Antarctic explorer of some renown who accompanied Shackleton on his ill-fated voyage of 1914. The pub is a little museum featuring photos & artifacts from his career in the Royal Navy. It serves a pretty good pub lunch with a good pour of Guinness and is worth a stop. There's also Inch beach a bit further on - a broad expanse of gorgeous sand that runs for miles, and which was featured in the old David Lean film "Ryan's Daughter" many years ago.

What wonderful suggestions! Thank you both so much. Can't wait to make the trip there.

Robert'scomment about the deserted famine village of Cummeengeera, reminded me of the Fahan Famine cottages on the Dingle Peninsula, on the hillside abover the road. It's a good few years since we visited and then they were open with an honesty box. They now seem to be part of Dingle Sheepdogs along with the beehive huts. Both of these are worth searching out. See also here.

We also liked the ruined Kilmalkedar Church, again on Dingle Peninsula, with its old crosses, sundail and ogham stone.

Looking at all of these sites - so many good options! Thanks again for the great suggestions.

Hiking the Gap of Dunloe.

Thanks for the suggestion, Claudia! Can you say more? I see there are 2 hikes. What's the level of difficulty for the longer one? Are they accessible from Kate Kearney's cottage? I understand that driving through the Gap is not advised. Thanks again for the suggestion and any further info.

Driving Gap of Dunloe during the day is NOT recommended and you will get a lot of hassle from the jaunting cars. Admitedly it is a few years ago now, but we drove it in the late evening after all the jaunting cars had finished for the day with tourists having their evening meal and doing other things.....

Parking for the Gap is adjacent to Kate Kearney's, and you can preview the road by using the Street View feature on Google maps. It's a pretty mellow walk/hike - mostly level on a paved track. The walk from Kate's to the head of the Glen and back is about 7 miles, but you can go as far as you want and turn around wherever it pleases you - the scenery is all gorgeous.
The jaunting cars start operating around 8:30 AM, so if you get there early you'll have things all to yourselves, ie without the crowds and congestion of midday.