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Cross the river from Kenmare and you're on the Beara Peninsula , which Kerry shares with Cork. Beara has its followers, but after the wildness of the rest of Kerry, it can at first seem over-lush and polite, with more of the flavour of Cork. Even along the River Kenmare, though, the scenery is attractive enough and curiously, once you actually cross into County Cork, the Beara becomes far wilder . Turn right after the bridge out of Kenmare, and the road runs through heavily wooded country alongside the Kenmare estuary; after about seven miles there's a signpost to the left for Inchiquin Lake . Following this, you soon quit the luxuriant vegetation as the bumpy road ascends rapidly to the lake, affording exhilarating views of the countryside left behind. A waterfall tumbles down from a second lake, and on the far side of Inchiquin Lake is Uragh Wood , one of the last surviving remnants of the ancient sessile oakwoods that once covered most of Ireland. The entire valley is packed with plants : large-flowered butterwort covers the meadows in spring, and you can find Irish spurge, saxifrage, arbutus and other flora specific to the southwest here. At the lake itself, the surrounding hills seem to act as some kind of intensifier focused on a tiny stone circle by the side of the water - bringing to mind the theory that these prehistoric monuments indicate earth forces. There's salmon, sea trout and brown trout fishing in both lakes, but, as always, check the licence position before you start.
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