Killarney National Park/Gap of Dunloe

Suggest getting an early start and parking your car at the Kate Kearney Cottage, then setting off on one of the most pleasant and picturesque walks in all of Ireland. The earlier the better (within reason) - the parking lot tends to fill up quickly by around 10 AM, which is about the time the jaunting cars start their excursions...which means that you'll then be sharing the narrow, one-lane path with them. It's about 3.5 miles from Kate Kearney's to the end of the glen, so it's a 7 mile round trip on a relatively level grade. There's a cute little tea room about a mile in where you can take a break, have some scones and a hot beverage, and either continue or return to the car park.
We consider the Gap to be one of the prettiest little walks in Ireland, and make it a point to spend the day there whenever we're in the area.
After a day out and about you can grab lunch at Kate's (quite good actually) and then be on your way. It's about a 1+15 drive to Dingle town, or maybe another 30 minutes if you swing around to come thru Connor Pass...which is highly recommended.

Highly recommend Gap of Dunloe. Agree with previous poster about arriving early!!! Killarney National Park is lovely as well. I walked from the entrance across from St Mary's out towards Ross Castle and back. Picnicked by the Rowing Club shed (old red building) watching the water fowl and enjoying the quiet of the lake in November. Lovely 1/2 day sojourn. Enjoy your trip.

I'll just add that we did take a cart ride and it was a ton of fun. It was about forty five minutes, and our driver was a delightful older gentleman by the name of Michael-we had a great conversation with him. He took us round the house, by the lake and to the ruins of the Abbey. If your kids are old enough to hang out on their own for a bit it might be a nice thing to do, though with six it gets expensive and cumbersome I'm sure.

Corny? A little. Touristy? Definitely. Fun and memorable? Yup.

Thank you for everyone for your responses. A couple of questions - Does the main hike take you from Kate's Cottage to Lord Brandon's? I've been reading about taking a boat from Lord Brandon's back to Ross Castle. I assume we would need contact a tour operator to get a boat ride lined up. Is this an enjoyable boat ride? I believe it is about an hour and a half? Or maybe to simply hike to the top of the Gap and then back to Kate's? Is this the 7 km round trip estimate? I assume if we did this early then we would have time to take in some other sites - Muckross House? Other hikes?

We are staying at the Lake Hotel and would probably check out early to start our day and drive to Kate's Cottage ourselves. I see there are tours that pick you up at 10 am from town and take you there, but I would rather start earlier. I have read the walk back to town from Ross Castle is short. Just trying to figure out the best plan of where to leave our car. Assume we will need to taxi back to it unless we were to take a tour from town.

I do see Killarney Day tours has the option of catching a boat from Ross Castle at 9:30 that takes you to Lord Brandon's and then hike to Kate's Cottage. Taking bikes is another option I have considered. I'm just not sure how we return them once we arrive at Kate's Cottage as assume we would be taking taxi back to Ross Castle if we left our car there.

Thank you for any advice!

The logistics will be a little more complicated if you try to do it as a one-way trip with a return into town.
The walk from Kate's to Lord Brandon's is about 7 miles (one way), while the walk from Kate's to the head of the Gap is about 7 miles round trip. You could conceivably start from either Kate's, or via the boat ride across the lake (quite nice), but then you need to arrange for transport back into town or out to the cottage if you parked there.
Might want to check Google maps to get your bearings.
While Lord Brandon's is a nice spot for lunch, and with a good view of the lake, I'm not sure it would be worth the extra hour of hiking just to get there - the really pretty scenery ends at the head of the Gap (IMO).
Also, if you somehow arranged for return transportation back into Killarney town, you then have to negotiate traffic thru the congested area to retrace your steps and be on your way to Dingle, whereas if you depart from Kate's you'd bypass all that. Would make for a much more pleasant day I think, plus you could use the saved time to both hike a bit and maybe book a ride on one of the jaunting cars...which really are great fun.

Regarding bikes: you can rent bikes and take them on the boat/jaunty cart up to the top of the park and cycle down. I've ridden my own bike through the Gap to the Black Valley and on to Sneem a few times and it's a lovely ride. A few challenging hills in the Gap, but the biggest time constraint is you'll want to stop and take photos about every 100 feet!! ;-)

Also - walking back to town from Ross Castle is easy. I do it twice a month (except now that it's under water - the path, not the castle) and it takes about 25 minutes or so.

The Gap walk is also nice in the rain, because unlike most trails it's paved so you won't have to deal with mud. Just a bit of, um, well... horse poop ifyouknowwhatimean....

Susan
Enjoy!

Been looking into this. We want to visit Gap of Dunloe the morning after we stay in Killarney. We plan to take in Muckross Traditional Farms when it opens at 1 pm and after that we are heading off to Kinsale.

I'm leaning towards driving to Kate Kearney's then hopefully get a short ride in a jaunting cart, maybe to the head and back, as you say. Or else a walk, even if we don't walk all the way to the head.

Folks here, and elsewhere researching Killarney Natl Park and Gap of Dunloe, keep saying "miles". Are they standard miles or actually kilometers, that makes a big difference.

If we do this, we would get to Kate Kearney's early, probably by 9 or so. Think we'd have a chance of getting a jarvey then or not?

The distances referenced are in miles.
I think the jaunting cars start around 9 AM but am not sure. Suggest you check locally for a more definitive answer.

We followed Robert's advice and arrived at Kate Kearney's cottage at about 9 am. We hiked to the top of the Gap and back in about 3 1/2 hours. It is right at 7 miles total is you go up and back down the same way. We have 4 kids ages 15-21 and walked at a moderate pace.

I would say the jaunting cars start by 10 am for sure. We passed some of them heading down to start their day as we began our hike.

This hike was one of my favorite parts of our entire trip! It is a beautiful hike and well worth it to continue to the top. Lots of great photo ops. It is not a difficult hike as you are following the road. Just take your time and enjoy! I noticed some older people in jaunting cars would get out and walk for awhile and then ride again. For me, this is a must do for anyone visiting Killarney!

We enjoyed a nice lunch of soup and toasted sandwiches at the cottage after our hike. Also, some great desserts at the Coffee Pot across the street.

The day before this hike we arrived in Killarney mid afternoon. We decided to have a late lunch and then rented bikes - we only had them for two hours as they were closing at 6 pm. We are able to ride to the Muckross Abbey and House and on to the Torc Waterfall. We locked up our bikes and took the 5 minute hike to the waterfall. Very pretty. We were not really interested in going in Muckross House but the grounds are beautiful and the bikes gave us a chance to cover some miles in a short amount of time. I wish we would have had another day to explore the park. I'm sure there is more great hiking and biking, but the Gap of Dunloe did not disappoint!

I plan to take time to share our entire trip soon on this forum as it was so helpful to me when I was planning. Ireland was a lovely as I had thought it would be!

Pleased you and your family enjoyed the beauty of the Gap. I find it one of the prettiest places on the planet. Sounds like the Killarney National park was a hit as well. Looking forward to your trip report.