The reason to turn off at Kilgarvan is a shed full of old cars. The Kilgarvan Motor Museum, out at Slaheny just beyond the village, is a family-run collection built up since the mid-1970s by John Mitchell – a private garage more than a formal museum, where you browse at your own pace and the people there will talk you through the restorations. The first car through the door, a 1946 Armstrong Siddeley Lancaster, is still on show, alongside vintage marques from Ford and Rolls-Royce to a Porsche 911. One thing worth knowing before you drive out: it opens Tuesday to Saturday, April to September, and stays closed on Mondays even in season – and it shuts for an hour at lunch, 12.45 to 1.45. There’s a small admission charge; ring ahead on (064) 668 5346 to check prices and opening.
The village and its history
Kilgarvan (Irish: Cill Gharbháin, ‘Garvan’s church’) is a small village of about 260 people, strung along the Roughty River as it runs down toward Kenmare Bay, roughly 11 km east of Kenmare and half an hour from Killarney. It carries more history than its size suggests. In 1261 the Battle of Callann was fought in the next townland; the Gaelic victory checked Norman expansion for generations, though nothing of the battlefield survives now but the name and the stories.
More visible is Ardtully House, the castellated shell of an 1847 mansion built by Sir Richard Orpen on far older foundations. It was burned in 1921 during the War of Independence and left to the ivy. To find it, follow the painted mural on a Main Street wall, which points the way out through the fields.
Walking and nature
For a stretch of the legs, the Rossacroo Millennium Forest, managed by Coillte, has easy tracks through native and planted woodland with interpretive panels along the way. The tougher Rossacroo and Crohan Loop is a 14 km circuit climbing to 332 m, with views over east Kerry to the MacGillycuddy’s Reeks. Just outside the village, an old ice house is a protected roost – a Special Area of Conservation – for the lesser horseshoe bat, one of Ireland’s rarest and smallest bats. Cyclists after a hard day out can take the 103 km Killarney–Kilgarvan–Kenmare loop over Moll’s Gap and the Healy Pass.
Community and sport
Each August bank holiday Sunday the Kilgarvan Show takes over the Fussa townland with livestock, crafts and music – a proper slice of rural Kerry. And in a county that lives for football, Kilgarvan’s hurlers are the local oddity: the club became the first Kerry team to win a Munster club hurling game, and went on to reach the Munster Junior Club Hurling final in 2008.
Getting there
Kilgarvan sits on the R569, which links Kenmare to the N71. It’s about 35 minutes from Killarney and 15 from Kenmare; Bus Éireann services pass through the village, and the nearest train station is Killarney. Kerry Airport, up at Farranfore, is the closest airport. The village is small and flat enough to walk, and it makes a quiet base for the Ring of Kerry, the Healy Pass and Moll’s Gap.
Allow a couple of hours – the museum, a look at Ardtully, and a short walk by the Roughty – and remember the museum is shut on Mondays and over lunch.