Valentia Island was never on the road trip plan, but it turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. The original plan was Portmagee and a visit to the puffins on Skellig Michael, but the ocean was too rough for tours and food poisoning hit the family (not la Niña and I).
We ended up camping out in a lovely little Bed and Breakfast on Valentia Island (Carraig Liath House) for a couple of days while we explored the island and chased sheep whenever the opportunity presented itself.
Driving on Valentia is an adventure in itself. Roads are one lane (if you can call them roads) and the only way for two cars to pass by each other is for one car to drive into the 6-foot high bushes that line the side of the roads. This explains the scratches that we saw on various cars around Ireland (thankful for the insurance).
Valentia Island is famous for being the European connection point for the transatlantic telegraph cable that runs between the UK and Newfoundland. Prior to this, the only way that messages could be passed between North America and Europe was by ship (9-days). The successful connecting of this cable (1858) dropped communication time down to minutes.
The only real “town” on the island is Knightstown, which has a cute little cafe called (surprise) Knights Town Cafe; here we were able to eat gluten-free and get a good soy latte. Take note, however, no place on Valentia Island or surrounding towns take anything but cash… and there are no cash machines in this part of the country.
