Coomakista Pass

Between Waterville and the turn for Derrynane House, the Ring of Kerry climbs away from the coast and up over Coomakista - Com an Chiste in Irish - a broad saddle of high ground reckoned by many to be the highest point on the whole driving loop. Somewhere around seven hundred feet up, the road reaches a generous pull-in with picnic tables, and the reason to stop is immediate: the land falls away and the entire southern seaboard of the Iveragh Peninsula lays itself out below you.

The centrepiece is Ballinskelligs Bay, a wide blue arc of Atlantic reaching in toward the village of the same name. Two humped islands, Deenish and Scariff, ride offshore, and beyond them, on a clear day, the twin pyramids of the Skellig Islands prick the horizon - the farther one being Skellig Michael, the monastery-crowned rock made famous the world over by its turn as Luke Skywalker's island in the recent Star Wars films. Turn the other way and you can pick out Waterville along its strand, with the small ringfort of Loher on the slopes above.

There is nothing to it beyond the view - no trail, no facilities to speak of, just the car park and the panorama - and that is exactly the appeal. Give it ten or twenty minutes. It repays clear weather and rewards evening light especially, when the sun drops toward the islands and the whole bay turns to gold. The catch is that the Skelligs are shy: low cloud and sea haze can hide them completely, so take the view you are given.

The pull-in sits right on the N70, and the Ring's tour coaches conventionally run anticlockwise, so a little timing helps you avoid arriving in a convoy. From here it is a short, scenic descent toward Derrynane Beach and Caherdaniel.