Sneem Walking Weekend and Culture Night: two things on around the Ring this Friday

Two things happen around the Ring this Friday, 18 September, at opposite ends of the day and about an hour's drive apart.

Sneem Walking Weekend runs from Friday 18 to Sunday 20 September. Sneem Walking Club hosts it from Dan Murphy's Bar in the village, and the walks go where a visitor with a car and a map would struggle to get on their own: into the Dunkerron Mountains behind Sneem, to glacial lakes and remote corries, along the Kenmare Bay coast and the banks of the Sneem River. There is a sunset walk on the programme. Walks are graded for all abilities, from an easy riverside stroll to a full day on the hills.

The Dunkerrons are the range you look at from the N70 the whole way between Kenmare and Sneem, and almost nobody driving past goes up them, because there are few marked paths and the going is rough. A club weekend with leaders who know the ground is the straightforward way in.

Places are limited and booked in advance through Eventbrite, which also carries the walk-by-walk programme with times and grades. Bring proper boots and rain gear whatever the forecast says: this is south Kerry in September.

Culture Night is the same Friday, and Killarney's event is at Market Cross at 6pm. It is a public performance of the Nelken Line, a piece by the choreographer Pina Bausch: a simple sequence of arm and hand movements, performed walking, that stands for the four seasons. Anyone can be in it. The last open rehearsal is on Thursday 17 September from 4pm to 6pm at West End House on New Street, and one rehearsal is enough to take part. Participants are asked to dress up, in formal wear or traditional dress from wherever they are from, and there is hair and make-up on hand.

If you are in Killarney on Friday evening, Market Cross at six is free and in the middle of the town. If you want to be in it rather than watch it, New Street on Thursday afternoon is where to be.