A few people have recommended the South Pole Inn pub near Dingle. I did some searches to get hours, etc. and it appears that the pub closed in September 2025. Its a shame, I was super interested in going there.
I would be interested in recommendations for other historic pubs that forum folks consider don't miss. We will be in Ireland about a month and will be covering much of it. (except Belfast)
Sorry to hear that. Our RS tour bus drove past it a couple weeks ago. Our tour guide told us the whole story about it and Tom Crean. I took a nice photo of the front. At 9 AM the parking lot was empty, and there were no signs out anywhere other than "Tom Crean" and "Southpole Inn".
Wow, that’s a shame. I remember bicycling towards it, with a big penguin painted on the side wall. Inside, little peat fires in little fireplaces were keeping things warm and cozy on a drizzly June day. Old oil lamps and some ice axes and other Antarctic gear were displayed on the walls. Tom Crean was the original owner, after he’d retired from icy exploring, and apparently now a couple had been running it for more than the past 30 years. Wonder if it’s getting torn down for condos, or will reopen under new management? It’s been over 7 months since it closed, though.
Jules, that Kerry County museum in Tralee had a room devoted to Tom Crean, as I recall. I wonder if the pub’s artifacts might wind up there, if it gets cleared out?
You may have all this on your radar, but in Dingle, there’s Dick Mack’s Pub, and the don’t-miss concerts in the St. James Church.
Farther north, closer to Doolin and Lisdoonvarna, there’s Kilfenora. It’s where the Burren Center museum is located, and our walking tour of the Burren met, and there’s also Vaughn’s Pub, where we rode downhill (then grunted back uphill afterwards) for lunch three days. That bicycle tour trip over a couple of weeks involved having seafood chowder practically every day and everywhere, and every place’s homemade recipe was different. Vaughn’s had the best seafood chowder.
