Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveller, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth

This is the first verse in the famous poem, The Road Not Taken by the American poet, Robert Frost, composed in 1920. In life we all at one time or another come to a crossroads and perhaps, like the poet, wonder what would be the outcome if we took the road less travelled. I was reminded of this recently during a three day visit which we had to the Dingle area during the fine week which we had in early June.

We were on the road from Dingle which leads to the Conor Pass coming to a junction and feeling adventurous, decided to take a by-road, well, from the potholes and the bushes almost meeting in the centre of the road, it was obviously the road less travelled.

The road ascended fairly steeply, so we were fairly sure we would end up at our intended destination, but instead we wound up in a farmer’s yard. We were greeted in friendly fashion by the farmer and his dog, he told us that many people on the way up to the Conor Pass end up in his yard. Almost the first question any Kerry man will ask you is; Where are you from, and when we told him we were from Fermoy, he told us that he had a great friend in Downing in Kilworth called Mick Dunne.

The man’s name was Tom O Sullivan, he was on crutches, but from the pollen on his boots he had obviously been walking through his fields, he was obviously a man who loved nature and all its inhabitants. There in this friendly man’s yard we talked for about half an hour before he put us back on the right road again, this was a chance meeting, one like we had with a Choctaw Indian at Caherdaniel in May.

We continued our journey to the Conor Pass, and leaving the car in the car park walked up the steep sheep-track to get a better view, it was well worth the effort. The Conor Pass is Ireland’s highest mountain pass, it is 1,500 feet above sea-level, from its top an almost endless panorama can be seen out over Dingle Bay, with its Inch Beach where Rosie Ryan lost her bonnet in the film Ryan’s Daughter. Down below are a necklace of corrie lakes, strung together by the Cloghane River.

We made our way back down to Dingle, we wanted to make the most of every minute in this wild and rugged part of Kerry, but we stopped off for a while at the old creamery at the foot of the Conor Pass, this has now been converted into a micro-brewery. There, we sampled the lager which is named after the great Antarctic explorer, Tom Crean and very refreshing it was too.

We then took the road out the long peninsula to the village of Annascaul, the birthplace of Tom Crean. We called to the old graveyard at Ballinacourty on the way up to Annascaul Lake to see the burial place of Tom Crean, a tomb which he built with his own hands and where he now lies buried with his wife and young daughter.

The last time we were there, beside the tomb there was a wreath which had been laid there by one of Creans Antarctic comrades in 1938, there is no trace of it now. It is the custom for visitors to his grave to place a stone on the tomb, there are now thousands of stones there, evidence of the high regard in which this gentle man is held.

On our last day we went to visit the ancient Church of Kilmalkeder, but that is a story for another day. What a difference it makes to take the road less travelled.

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