Famed for their pristine beauty, three Irish lakes bask in a climate with a curiously tropical touch.
Tucked among the green hills of County Kerry, near the south western tip of Ireland, within the Ring of Kerry, are the lovely sky-blue Lakes of Killarney. Though they are situated only about 65 feet (20 meters) above sea level, the lakes have a distinctly alpine look. Rising steeply all around them are rugged mountain slopes, including those of nearby Macgillycuddy’s Reeks, which is the highest range in Ireland.
The lowest and largest of the lakes, Lough Leane, is dotted with wooded islands—among them Innisfallen, where the ruins of an abbey that was founded about A.D. 600 can still be seen. Just to the south, separated from Lough Leane by a small peninsula, is Muckross, or Middle Lake. Beyond it, at the end of a winding channel about 21/2 miles (4 kilometers) long, lies the Upper Lake, which is considered by many of the visitors to the area to be the most picturesque of all of them.
The lakes, in contrast to the surrounding sandstone mountains, are cupped in limestone troughs. Their basins were formed in part by solution of the limestone but are primarily the results of glaciation. During the last ice age, great fingers of ice forced their way through gaps in the nearby mountains. Grinding over the bedrock, they scoured out the depression that became the basin of the Upper Lake and deposited heaps of glacial debris that eventually dammed up the Middle and Lower lakes.
Most traces of the Ice Age have long since vanished; sheltered from cold winds by the surrounding hills, the lowlands around the lakes are now noted for their exceptionally mild climate. Lush forests are filled with hollies, oaks, birches, and mountain ash, interspersed with lavish plantings of rhododendrons, azaleas, and magnolias. The arbutus shrub, a species common along the shores of the Mediterranean, flourishes throughout the area. And gardens are filled with camellias, hydrangeas, groves of bamboo, and a wealth of tropical and subtropical plants and shrubs.