Dingle: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
Dingle is a fishing harbour of fewer than 2,000 people that somehow holds dozens of pubs, a distillery and an ice-cream maker famous across Ireland. It is also in the Gaeltacht, where Irish is a living language, so street signs and half the conversations around you are in Irish. This walk takes about two hours, ending at the distillery on the edge of town. Bring a rain jacket whatever the forecast — the weather off the Atlantic changes every hour — and shoes for steep, wet streets.
A short history of Dingle
Dingle is a small harbour town on the Dingle Peninsula, an area where Irish is still spoken. The surroundings are scattered with ogham stones, carved in the ancient Irish script, and with stone buildings left by monks of the early Middle Ages. In the Middle Ages Dingle was a port trading with Spain. In 1969 the film "Ryan's Daughter" was shot on the peninsula, and tourists began to arrive. From 1983 until 2020 a lone dolphin named Fungie lived in the bay and became the town's symbol.
The ten best sights in Dingle
1Gallarus OratoryStep inside and look up: no mortar, and still dry after many centuries of Atlantic rain
2Kilmalkedar ChurchFree, unfenced, and almost always empty; find the alphabet stone in the graveyard
3Blasket CentreAn hour here before the boat to the Great Blasket makes the island make sense
4Dunbeg FortAn Iron Age fort on the cliff edge; the café's short film explains what you're seeing
5Riasc Monastic SettlementA five-minute detour for a pillar stone carved with spirals
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6Dingle Distillery
Book the tour ahead in summer; the driver can take a bottle home instead of a tasting
7Slea HeadPull in at the crucifix for the view of the Blaskets; the road is narrow, drive clockwise
8Coumeenoole BeachBeautiful but dangerous currents — look, paddle, don't swim
9Conor PassSingle-lane in places with a cliff drop; skip it in fog or with a wide vehicle
10Inch BeachFive kilometres of sand you can drive onto; surf lessons in summer
Scan with your phone camera to open the map there
What is an audio walk?
Tours in Dingle →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Dingle:
Free walking tours in Dingle
A harbour town of pubs
Dingle is a fishing harbour of fewer than 2,000 people that somehow holds dozens of pubs, a distillery and an ice-cream maker famous across Ireland. It is also in the Gaeltacht, where Irish is a living language, so street signs and half the conversations around you are in Irish. This walk takes about two hours, ending at the distillery on the edge of town. Bring a rain jacket whatever the forecast — the weather off the Atlantic changes every hour — and shoes for steep, wet streets.
- Fungie Statue · A wild bottlenose dolphin swam into Dingle harbour in 1983 and stayed, playing with boats and swimmers, for 37 years. Whole boat businesses grew up around him, and when he vanished in October 2020 boats searched the bay for weeks.
- Murphy's Ice Cream · The brothers Kieran and Seán Murphy, from New York, opened their first shop here in 2000 with milk from Kerry cows, a rare old Irish breed. Their sea-salt flavour is made with salt they boil from Dingle seawater.
- Dick Mack's · For most of its life Dick Mack's was a leather and boot shop on one side and a bar on the other, and the cobbler's bench is still there. The stars set into the pavement outside carry the names of famous visitors, Hollywood-style.
- Foxy John's · A working hardware shop and a pub in the same room: you can buy a hammer, rope or a bicycle part, then sit down among the shelves for a pint. It is one of the last of the mixed shop-pubs that once filled Irish country towns.
- Eask Tower · The stone tower on the hill across the harbour was built in 1847, during the Great Famine, as relief work for the hungry. A wooden arm on its side points to the narrow harbour mouth, guiding boats in from the open bay; it is a steep climb of about 40 minutes for the view.
- Dingle Distillery · Founded in 2012 in an old sawmill by Oliver Hughes, a pioneer of Irish craft brewing, at a time when Ireland had only a handful of distilleries. He died in 2016, months before the first Dingle whiskey was old enough to be sold.
The Slea Head Drive
West of Dingle the peninsula ends in cliffs, beehive huts and the Blasket Islands, the last land before America. The Slea Head Drive is a 47 km loop of narrow road, and it is driven clockwise — tour buses go that way and passing them head-on is a misery. Give it most of a day, with walks at each stop. Wind and rain can come in fast on the cliffs, so wear a warm waterproof layer even in July; in fog the views simply disappear, so keep a flexible day.
- Dunbeg Fort · Iron Age people built this fort on a headland, with a stone wall and ditches across the neck and the sea on every other side. The sea is winning: much of the fort has already fallen, and a storm in early 2014 tore away more of it.
- Fahan Beehive Huts · The huts are clocháns, round stone cells built without mortar, each course of stone set slightly further in until the roof closes. The peninsula has hundreds of these huts, many of them on the slopes above this road.
- Coumeenoole Beach · David Lean filmed Ryan's Daughter here in 1969, and built a whole village for it on the hill above Dunquin. Two decades later Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman shot the Irish scenes of Far and Away on the same peninsula.
- Blasket Centre · The last islanders of the Great Blasket were moved to the mainland in 1953. This tiny community left a shelf of classics in Irish, among them Tomás Ó Criomhthain's The Islandman (1929) and Peig Sayers' Peig, which generations of Irish schoolchildren were made to read.
- Gallarus Oratory · Shaped like an upturned boat and built of dry stone with no mortar at all, it has kept the rain out for perhaps a thousand years. No one knows exactly when it was built: estimates range from the 7th to the 12th century.
- Kilmalkedar Church · The 12th-century Romanesque church is where the pilgrims' Saint's Road up Mount Brandon begins. In the graveyard stand an ogham stone with a hole bored through its top and an 'alphabet stone' carved with Latin letters, perhaps used to teach writing.
The north side and the way in
Everyone photographs Slea Head; far fewer drive the empty north shore, the mountain pass or the long beach on the road in. This side of the peninsula holds its harder stories: a massacre, a ruined castle, a saint who may have sailed to America and a polar explorer who came home to open a pub. It is a day by car in pieces — Annascaul and Inch on the way in from Killarney, the north side on a day with clear skies. Take the Conor Pass only in good visibility, and bring boots for the walk at Brandon Creek.
- South Pole Inn · Tom Crean, born near Annascaul, sailed on three Antarctic expeditions with Scott and Shackleton and once walked 56 km alone across the ice to fetch help for his dying companions. When he came home he opened this pub and, it is said, almost never spoke about it.
- Inch Beach · A sand spit about 5 km long reaching across Dingle Bay. Parts of Ryan's Daughter were filmed here too, and the beach is so firm that cars are allowed to drive onto the sand.
- Minard Castle · A 16th-century tower house of the Knights of Kerry, blown up by Cromwell's soldiers in 1650; the explosion split its walls but failed to bring them down. It stands over a beach of huge round boulders.
- Conor Pass · At about 456 metres it is one of the highest mountain passes in Ireland reached by a paved road. On a clear day you see both Dingle Bay to the south and Brandon Bay to the north from the same lay-by.
- Brandon Creek · Tradition says Saint Brendan set out from this inlet in a leather boat to find the Promised Land in the west. In 1976 the explorer Tim Severin sailed a replica ox-hide boat from here and reached Newfoundland the next year, to show that the voyage was possible.
- Dún an Óir · In 1580 a force of some 600 Italian and Spanish soldiers, sent by the Pope to support an Irish rebellion, surrendered here to the English under Lord Grey and were killed almost to the last man. A young Walter Raleigh was among the officers.
Getting to Dingle and getting around
- Tralee Station · The nearest railway, 50 minutes away; trains to Dublin and Cork, often changing at Mallow
- Dingle Bus Stop · Buses to Tralee by the harbour car park; few a day, so check the timetable
Cheap eats in Dingle
Dingle eats from the boats in its own harbour: fish and chips on the quay, crab claws, chowder and smoked salmon in brown bread. Lunch is easy and casual, but food in Kerry is not cheap and the cafés close early, often by five. In the evening most pubs stop serving food around nine, then the music starts. Book dinner on summer weekends; in winter some places close for weeks.
- Reel Dingle Fish · Fish and chips to take away, about €13-17
- Murphy's Ice Cream · Two scoops about €5-6
- Bean in Dingle · The best coffee in town and a pastry, about €4-8
- The Little Cheese Shop · Irish farmhouse cheese for a picnic on Slea Head, about €6-15
- The Fish Box · Fresh fish, crab claws or a fish wrap, about €12-20
- John Benny's pub lunch · Chowder or fish pie at the bar, about €15-22
Museums in Dingle
- Blasket Centre · An hour or more; the window over the islands is the finale
- Músaem Chorca Dhuibhne · A small local museum in an old schoolhouse in Ballyferriter
- Gallarus Oratory · Small fee at the visitor centre; the oratory itself is a short walk
- Dingle Distillery · Whiskey, gin and vodka made in a former sawmill; tours by booking
- Dunbeg Fort · Iron Age walls and an underground passage on the cliff
Nature and day trips near Dingle
- Sybil Head · Cliff walk on open grass; stay well back from the edge
- Mount Brandon · A full-day climb for fit walkers; turn back if the cloud drops
- Inch Beach · Long walks on firm sand and surf lessons in summer
- Eask Tower · A stiff climb for the best view over Dingle harbour
- Conor Pass · Lakes and corries below the road; park at the top lay-by
Things to do in Dingle with kids
- Dingle Oceanworld Aquarium · A good rainy-day hour; check feeding times at the desk
- Fungie Statue · Climb on the bronze dolphin; boat trips leave nearby
- Inch Beach · Sandcastles and shallow water at low tide; lifeguards in summer
- Dunquin Pier · Boat crossing in season; can be rough
- Fahan Beehive Huts · Children can crawl inside the stone huts; sheep everywhere
Where to eat in Dingle
- Out of the Blue · Fish only, by the catch; book ahead
- Doyle's Seafood Restaurant · A long-standing seafood dining room on John Street
- O'Flaherty's · Trad music most nights; a pint and a seat by the wall
- Dick Mack's · A pint among the old leather-shop shelves; whiskey bar out back
- John Benny's · Pub dinner and live music by the harbour
Frequently asked questions about Dingle
What is there to see in Dingle?
The top sights in Dingle are Gallarus Oratory, Kilmalkedar Church and Blasket Centre. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Dingle?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Dingle without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Dingle?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Dingle, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: A harbour town of pubs.
How do you get to Dingle and get around?
The main ways are Tralee Station and Dingle Bus Stop. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Dingle, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Dingle that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Dingle for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.