Conor Pass Dingle
The Conor Pass on the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry is the highest road pass in Ireland, crossing the central ridge of the peninsula at approximately 456 metres above sea level in a route of extraordinary mountain scenery that descends from Dingle town on the south to Cloghane on the north in a series of hairpin bends and steep gradients above the glacial corrie lakes and the deep valley below. The combination of the altitude, the views across Dingle Bay to the south and Brandon Bay to the north and the dramatic mountain landscape of the pass itself creates one of the finest mountain road experiences in Ireland.
The view from the summit of the pass encompasses Dingle Harbour and the full length of Dingle Bay to the south with the Iveragh Peninsula and the distant Kerry mountains on the far shore, and to the north the great arc of Brandon Bay extending to Brandon Head and the Atlantic beyond. The mountain of Mount Brandon, the highest peak in Ireland outside Kerry's MacGillycuddy's Reeks, rises to the northwest and provides the dominant skyline feature of the northern view, its great bulk shaped by the same Ice Age glaciers whose work is visible in the corrie lakes below the pass.
The pass road is narrow in places and unsuitable for large vehicles in either direction, and the combination of the narrow road, the hairpin bends and the spectacular scenery makes the Conor Pass one of the most memorable and most slightly nerve-wracking mountain driving experiences in Ireland.