Ballybunion for the Non-Golfer: The North Kerry Day

Ballybunion is a real Kerry village that has refused to become a resort. That is wonderful for the round, which feels like golf rather than tourism, and unhelpful for a companion who was hoping for boutiques. What north Kerry has instead is a coastline almost no visitor sees and a market town that produced a remarkable share of Ireland's writers.

This day is built for the traveller who has already done the Ring of Kerry and would rather have an afternoon than an itinerary. There are no queues, no coach parks and no famous sights to tick off. There is sea air, a good lunch, and the best seaweed bath in the country.

The Old Course takes about four and a half hours, more into the wind, and many visiting groups add the Cashen course afterwards. If they play both, the golfer is gone from breakfast until evening, and the companion day can stretch accordingly.

On a single round day, the plan below works in order and ends in the village as the golfers finish. On a thirty six hole day, add Carrigafoyle Castle in the afternoon, which we describe below, before the seaweed bath.

Ten minutes north of the village, the Bromore Cliffs walk runs across private farmland along a clifftop meadow above sea caves, arches and nesting seabirds. It was opened and is maintained by the family who farm it, and it feels nothing like a managed attraction. There is no coach park, and there never will be.

Allow an hour or so. The path is grass and can be wet, so wear shoes that do not mind farm ground. There is usually a small charge that goes toward upkeep, and the owners are happy to talk about the coast. On a clear day you can see across the Shannon estuary to Loop Head in Clare.

Back in the village, the ruin of Ballybunion Castle stands on the headland between the two beaches, a single wall of a fortified house above the sea. It takes ten minutes to see and gives you the best view of the strands and the links beyond.

Walk down to the Ladies' Beach and along the shore beneath the cliffs, where at low tide you can look into the caves. This is also where you will return in the afternoon for the seaweed bath, so it is worth knowing the layout. Then drive inland for lunch.

Twenty five minutes inland, Listowel is a handsome market town arranged around a square, with a castle on the river and a literary tradition out of all proportion to its size. John B. Keane kept a pub here, and Bryan MacMahon taught here. Eat Kerry lamb or local fish at lunch in one of the town's restaurants, then take twenty minutes in the snug at John B. Keane's own bar.

The Kerry Writers' Museum on the square is small, genuinely moving, and worth an hour even for readers who do not know the names yet. Listowel also has a working reconstruction of the Lartigue monorail, a nineteenth century single rail railway, which is unexpected and charming. Check current opening days for both before you go.

Return to Ballybunion for the part of the day most companions talk about afterwards. Seaweed baths have been run above the Ladies' Beach for well over a century: a private tub of hot seawater with hand cut seaweed from the rocks outside, followed by a cold shower if you are brave.

Go late in the afternoon so you finish as the golfers come off eighteen. You will feel better than they do, and you will not have to explain why. Bring a swimsuit and allow about an hour. There is no need to book far ahead on a weekday outside high summer, but ask your hotel to confirm the day's arrangements.

Listowel absorbs a wet day well. Spend longer at the Writers' Museum and the castle, and stretch lunch. Keep the seaweed bath, which is better in rain than in sun. On a long day, add Carrigafoyle Castle near Ballylongford, a tall tower house on the edge of the Shannon estuary that you can often climb.

We would skip Dingle on a round day. It is a lovely town and it is roughly four hours of driving there and back. Give it its own day if it matters to you, and do not try to attach it to a round at Ballybunion.

Ballybunion is about an hour and a half from Shannon Airport, or less if you take the car ferry from Killimer in Clare across to Tarbert, which is also the pleasant way to arrive from Lahinch. You need a car. The village has simple places to stay; for luxury, most of our readers base themselves at Adare Manor, about ninety minutes east, or at a country house in Kerry.

Pair this with Lahinch across the estuary and Adare inland. That gives the companion three very different days in one week: the Burren, this quiet north Kerry coast, and the estate day at Adare, where nobody needs to drive at all.