Cahirciveen, Cathair Saidhbhín, Co. Kerry

Cathair Saidhbhín · Co. Kerry

The Liberator's town, halfway round the Ring, with the Skelligs out the window.

Cahirciveen is the working town of the Iveragh peninsula. Coach tours come through it on the Ring of Kerry without quite stopping; the town carries on regardless. The main street is half a mile of shopfronts that have been the same shops for decades, and the Bay of Cahirciveen sits at the bottom of it, and the mountains start about three streets back.

It is a town that earns its place in the story without needing to perform for it. Daniel O'Connell - the Liberator - was born just outside it. The Royal Irish Constabulary built their county headquarters here, and the town burnt it down in 1922. The ruined castle and the stone fort on the hill above the bay have been standing since long before either of them.

Use it as a base. Skelligs out one side, Valentia the other, the Ring of Kerry in both directions. Eat in the town, drink in the town, sleep in the town, and let the day-trippers chase the next car park. The light over the bay at six in the evening is worth more than another stop on a coach map.

Population

~1,300

Walk score

Main Street end-to-end in ten minutes

Founded

Town laid out 1820s, around the Nimmo road

Coords

51.948° N, 10.224° W

01 / 10

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The Liberator

Daniel O'Connell was born at Carhan, near Cahirciveen, in 1775.

Carhan House, two kilometres east. The man who won Catholic Emancipation grew up on the Ferta. The Memorial Church on Main Street is named for him - one of the only Catholic churches in the world named for a layman.

Stories & lore → 02 The Old Barracks

A Bavarian schloss on the edge of the Atlantic.

The RIC built it in the 1870s in a turreted German style. Anti-Treaty forces burnt it in 1922. It sat as a shell for seventy years. Restored as a heritage centre in the 1990s and it still looks like a mistake on the map.

Stories & lore → 03 The Skellig coast

Gateway, not destination.

Portmagee and the Skellig boats are twenty minutes south. Valentia Island is fifteen minutes west across the bridge. Most people sleep in Cahirciveen and drive out at dawn. Plan it that way.

Getting there →

02 / 10

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

Mike Murt's

Quiet, talky

Old-school local

A proper Cahirciveen institution on Main Street. No music nights advertised, no menu, no fuss. Order a pint and find out what the town is actually thinking.

The Anchor Bar

Mixed crowd

Pub, near the harbour

Tunes turn up most weekends in season. The kind of place that fills out slowly from about half nine and stays that way.

The Skellig Inn

Boat-day reliable

Pub & food, Portmagee road

Down at Portmagee twenty minutes south, technically - but it is the pub everyone ends up in after a Skellig boat. Worth the drive on a fine evening.

03 / 10

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
QC's Bar & Kitchen	Seafood restaurant & bar	€€€	The best dinner in town and it has been for twenty years. Kells Bay seafood, a wood fire, a wine list that punches above the postcode. Book ahead - it fills out in summer.
The Point	Bar & restaurant, Renard	€€	Five minutes out of town toward the Valentia ferry. Sea views, simple seafood, the kind of lunch that turns into an afternoon. Closes off-season.
Skellig Six18 Distillery	Distillery & cafe	€€	Whiskey and gin distillery on the edge of town. Tours, tastings, decent food in the cafe. Named for the 618-step climb on Skellig Michael, which they insist you should not do hungover.

04 / 10

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
QC's Guesthouse	Guesthouse above the restaurant	Superior rooms above the best kitchen in town. Small number of rooms; book ahead in season. Wake up, go downstairs, order the breakfast. The logic is obvious.
Iveragh Heights B&B	B&B, east end of town	Family-run, six ensuite rooms on the Carhan Road. Three-star Fáilte Ireland graded. The east end of town means a five-minute walk to Main Street and a quiet night. Good base for the Beenatee Loop.
Mannix Point Camping	Campsite, harbour edge	Out on the point at the bay, with the water on three sides. The campsite Mortimer Moriarty built into something of a legend - Terry and Charlotte now run it in the same spirit. The best pitch in the county on a clear evening. Fires on the beach.

05 / 10

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

Daniel O'Connell, born 1775

The Liberator

He was born at Carhan House just outside Cahirciveen and raised in Derrynane down the coast. He became the lawyer and politician who won Catholic Emancipation in 1829 - the first peaceful mass political movement in Europe, half a century before anyone else managed it. The Memorial Church on Main Street, finished in 1902, is one of the only Catholic churches in the world named for a layman. The town has not let go of him, and there is no reason it should.

Burnt 1922, restored 1990s

The Old Barracks

The Royal Irish Constabulary built their county headquarters here in the 1870s, in a turreted German schloss style that has never quite made sense on a Kerry headland. The story goes that the plans were swapped with a barracks meant for the North-West Frontier of India. Anti-Treaty forces burnt it in 1922 during the Civil War. It stood as a roofless shell for seventy years. The town restored it as a heritage centre in the 1990s and it is now the museum it should have been all along.

Castle ruin and stone fort

Ballycarbery and Leacanabuaile

Three kilometres west of the town the road runs out at Ballycarbery Castle - a fifteenth-century McCarthy Mór tower house, now a roofless ruin standing in a field above the bay. Walk the lane uphill from there and you reach Leacanabuaile, a stone ringfort from somewhere around the ninth century, with the original chamber and souterrain still walkable. Both are unticketed, unsupervised, and entirely the better for it. Bring boots.

06 / 10

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

Beenatee Loop Climbs Beentee Mountain above the town. The purple waymarked trail from the town car park. Views over the Iveragh Peninsula, Valentia Island, and the Dingle Peninsula from the top. A proper hill walk - boots required, cloud can come in fast. Sport Ireland rates it moderate.

9 km loopdistance

4 hourstime

Carhan Letter Loop Flatter than Beenatee, starting south of town near the Carhan Road. Passes Carhan House - Daniel O'Connell's birthplace - and loops back along the river. A good half-morning if the mountain is in cloud.

7 km loopdistance

2 hourstime

07 / 10

Tours, if you want one.

The ones below are bookable through our partners - pick one that suits, or skip the lot and just turn up.

via Viator

Sustainable Ring of Kerry Rail Tour from Dublin

day trips

Take the train from Dublin to Killarney and join a full coach circuit of the Ring of Kerry - Dingle Bay, MacGillycuddy Reeks, Glenbeigh, Waterville and the Lakes of Killarney.

15 hours 30 minutes From €161

See tour → via Viator

3-Day Blarney Castle, Ring of Kerry, & Cliffs of Moher Rail tour

day trips

Three days by rail and coach from Dublin - Blarney Castle, the Ring of Kerry and the Cliffs of Moher, with B&B accommodation and a hosted train experience included.

72 hours From €1039

See tour → via Viator

4-Day Blarney Castle, Ring of Kerry, Cliffs of Moher & Connemara

day trips

A 4-day rail and coach tour from Dublin Heuston covering Cork, Blarney Castle, Ring of Kerry, Bunratty Castle, Cliffs of Moher, Galway Bay and Connemara.

96 hours From €1321

See tour →

We earn a small commission when you book through our tour pages. It costs you nothing extra and keeps the village hubs free. All Co. Kerry tours →

08 / 10

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Quiet. The Ring of Kerry coaches haven't arrived. The Beenatee Loop is in good condition and the town has its own rhythm.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Coach traffic on the N70 is constant. The town itself stays civilised - it is set back enough from the road that the tour groups rarely stop. Book accommodation ahead.

◐ Mind yourself

Autumn

Sep-Oct

The best Skellig weather window - sea calmer, light better, tour boats fewer. The town settles after summer. Salmon and sea trout running in the river.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

The westernmost town in Ireland in winter is not for everyone. Some places close. The ones that stay open are more themselves than ever.

◐ Mind yourself

09 / 10

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Skellig Michael in July on a single day's notice

Boat licences are capped. Operators fill up months ahead in July and August. Book online as early as January if you want a specific date in high summer.

Driving past the Old Barracks without stopping

Every coach does it. Walk in. The heritage centre inside the restored RIC barracks is one of the better small museums in Kerry and takes forty minutes.

Assuming Cahirciveen is just a Ring of Kerry fuel stop

The town has the Skelligs on one side, Valentia on the other, Beenatee above it, and QC's for dinner. Stay a night. The schedule can wait.

Getting there.

By car

Killarney to Cahirciveen is 1h 15m on the N70 via Killorglin. The Ring of Kerry road runs straight through the town - both directions of it.

By bus

Local Link and Bus Éireann routes on the N70 connect Cahirciveen to Killorglin, Killarney and Tralee. The 279A loops the Ring in summer. Slow, scenic, fine if you are not in a rush.

By train

No train. The line opened in 1893 and shut in 1960. The nearest station is Killarney, then bus or hire car.

By air

Kerry Airport (KIR) is 1h 30m by road. Cork is 2h 30m. Shannon is 2h 45m. Note: there is no McDonald's on the main street, and there is no McDonald's anywhere west of here either - Cahirciveen is the most westerly town in Ireland, and the chains have not made it this far.

Next on the tour

Co. Kerry

Portmagee

Twenty minutes south. The Skellig boat village, painted black and white, with one main street and one pub that runs the lot.

Co. Kerry

Waterville

Half an hour further round the Ring. Charlie Chaplin's holiday town, with a links course and a lake behind it.

Co. Kerry

Knightstown

Across the bridge on Valentia Island. Slate quarry, transatlantic cable station, and a tetrapod trackway 385 million years old.