Ring of Kerry Folk Museum

The Ring of Kerry is a loop of road.

The N70 to be precise.

Much like ‘The Wine Routes’ in Australia or ‘The Garden Route’ in South Africa, 'The Ring Of Kerry' is a clever marketing ploy as driving ‘The Ring’ becomes a tourist must-do.

It has been so successful that the Ring of Kerry even has a sub-ring; The Ring of Valencia. There are two other rings in the region as well. Each one takes about a day to work around, what with all the coaches stuck on the narrow lanes and the prodigious number of museums and sights of historic interest which have been renovated for your interest and amusement.

Some of the Museums are in the OPW Heritage Ireland Scheme. Others are private and one such is the folk museum on the Ring of Kerry.

What I found most interesting about the history of the place was it was only about men.

It was founded by a man who wanted to get away from the town.

Then on subsequent visits over the years he found other men with skills he needed and they all moved out with him until there was a self sufficient little community.

As there was not a single mention of a single woman or of any children in any of the literature I speculated that this may have been Ireland’s first gay commune.