Dorp · Co. Kerry
The ferry village at the foot of Valentia Island — “the ferry” in Irish — where the bridge crosses to the island, named for an 18th-century smuggler captain, and the Skellig boats put out.
Portmagee (Irish: An Caladh, meaning “the ferry”) is a village in County Kerry, Ireland. The village is located on the Iveragh peninsula south of Valentia Island. It is known locally as “the ferry”, in reference to its purpose as a crossing point to the island. Access to Valentia Island is now via the Maurice O’Neill Memorial Bridge (R565 road) from Portmagee, which was built in 1970 and named in memory of a member of the IRA executed in 1942 for his part in the shooting dead of Detective George Mordaunt in Dublin.
The name Portmagee — Port Magee and Magee’s Port as it was formerly known — comes from Captain Theobald Magee, a notorious 18th-century smuggler. Having served in the French navy, Magee settled in the village and ran his trade out of the small harbour, and the name has stuck to the place since. The harbour is the village: a narrow sweep of water where the boats still put out, and the crossing to the island is the thing the village has always been.
Portmagee is the west-coast departure point for the Skellig Islands in summer, and the Valentia crossing — by bridge now, by ferry before — is still the practical route for anyone coming up the Iveragh from the south. The village sits at the narrow point where the Iveragh meets the island, and the walk around the harbour is the walk that gets done: the boats, the bridge, the headland above.
Portmagee is a short drive west of Cahersiveen on the Iveragh road; the bridge to Valentia is in the village. The Skellig boat season runs in summer, weather dependent — confirm the current schedules and fares before travelling.
Waar logeren
Portmagee puts the harbour, the bridge and the Skellig boats all in one walk — the Valentia crossing is the bonus.
Bekijk de actuele beschikbaarheid voor je data. Beschikbaarheid en prijzen komen van de aanbieder, niet van ons.
The aquarium in Dingle town — penguins, sharks, Asian otters and rays under a glass dome on the main street, the classic rainy-day stop on the Iveragh and one of the best places in the country to do with kids.
A small, steep island off the Iveragh Peninsula, home to an early Christian monastery of beehive huts — a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the great places in the country.
Two small islands off the Dingle Peninsula, home to a community until 1953 — now a nature reserve and one of the most important seabird colonies in Europe.
The principal settlement of the Iveragh Peninsula — “Little Sadhbh’s stone ringfort” — on the lower River Ferta, fifty kilometres west of Killarney, with the ringforts of Cahergall and Leacanabuaile in the townland.