Ballinskelligs

Ballinskelligs - Baile an Sceilg, 'the place of the Skellig rock' - lies off the main Ring of Kerry on the looping Skellig Ring, and the detour is worth it. This is a Gaeltacht, one of the Irish-speaking districts of the west, and in summer the village fills with students at the Irish colleges; you'll hear the language in the shop and the pub. Its heart is a long, pale Blue Flag strand curving round the bay, backed by dunes and safe enough for a family swim.

Two ruins bookend the sand. At the beach's edge, half-swallowed by an eroding sandy spit, stand the broken walls of Ballinskelligs Castle, a tower house thrown up by the MacCarthy Mór lords in the sixteenth century to watch the bay and levy dues on the ships that used it. A short way round the shore lie the more substantial remains of Ballinskelligs Priory, a house of Augustinian canons founded in the early thirteenth century. Local tradition holds that it became the mainland home of the monks who abandoned Skellig Michael out in the ocean when the exposed rock grew too harsh to endure - carrying their community, and their name, ashore.

Both are free, unguided national monuments; walk out to them at low tide, as the castle in particular sits on a neck of sand that the sea can cut off. On the headland above, the Cill Rialaig project has restored a cluster of pre-Famine cottages as a retreat for artists - the studios themselves are private, but there's a welcoming arts centre and café nearby where you can see the work and pause for coffee.

Ballinskelligs makes a peaceful half-day off the main circuit, easily combined with a run out along the Skellig Ring toward Portmagee and the Kerry Cliffs. The nearest full-service village back on the Ring is Waterville, a short drive south.