Ballinskelligs

Ballinskelligs is located on the northern shore of a bay with the same name, near the western end of the Iveragh Peninsula and the Ring of Kerry. We spent three days here, so these photos come from several different walks - thus different lighting, different weather, different tides.

AERIAL VIEW

The main beach is a sandy crescent-shaped strand a couple of kilometers long. There are grassy dunes at the west end, but much of the rest of the beach is backed by a low bluff. There is a smaller, very different beach, just off the western end of the main beach, which we'll come back to in a subsequent post. But for reference, it is the one with the castle on it.

At  first blush it's a sandy beach, but the sand may be just a veneer in most areas. A gravel storm berm is visible at the base of the bluff. In addition, several small streams cross the beach, exposing the coarse gravel that extends beneath the beach.

The beaches I like best are the ones with a lot of interesting details.