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The Banna Strand coastal road aside, North Kerry is unexciting - undulating farmland rolling up to the Shannon. The main road from Tralee heads up through LISTOWEL , a workaday Irish town that does, however, have a degree of literary distinction, boasting a number of fine writers and a four-day festival of literary workshops and meetings, usually held around the end of May or the first week of June. Arguably, the town's most famous writer is John B. Keane, especially known for his Man of the Triple Name , an amusing account of North Kerry matchmaking during the 1930s and 1940s. The new Kerry Literary and Cultural Centre in the town square includes information on a number of local writers, including John B. Keane, Brian McMahon, Maurice Walsh, George Fitzmaurice and Brendan Kennelly and will act as a venue for Irish music and storytelling (tel 066/22212). Throughout the summer there's also free literary entertainment in the John B. Keane pub, with performances of his plays and humorous commentary on his work. The time when Listowel - and surrounding places as far away as Tarbert and Ballybunion - really come to life, however, is for the annual Listowel races , in the third week of September, when farming people from far and wide, their harvest in, take time off to eat, drink and lose money on the horses. Further information can be had from the tourist office , on the square (June-Sept Mon-Sat 10am-1pm & 2-6pm; Oct-May Mon-Fri 9.30am-1pm & 2-6pm; tel 068/22590). There's plenty of accommodation here, ranging from the comfort of the Listowel Arms (tel 068/21500; GBP110-130/?139.67-165.07) to simpler B&Bs such as The North County House , 67 Church St. (tel 068/21238; GBP40-55/?50.79-69.84), and Ashford Lodge , Tarbert Rd (tel 068/21280; GBP33-40/?41.90-50.79). Northbound from Listowel the main road continues to TARBERT on the Shannon estuary, and from there trails the river inland (through County Limerick) towards Limerick and Shannon Airport. There's a hostel , The Ferry House , on the square (IHH; tel 068/36555). Immediately north of the town, the car ferry across the estuary provides a useful short cut into County Clare; there's no other river crossing west of Limerick (April-Sept Mon-Sat 7.30am-9.30pm, Sun 9.30am-9.30pm; Oct-March Mon-Sat 7.30am-7.30pm, Sun 10am-7.30pm; sailings on the half-hour, return from Killimer on the hour; tel 065/53124; car GBP7/?8.89 single, GBP10/?12.70 return; foot passenger/cyclist GBP2/?2.54 single, GBP3/?3.81 return). Turning westwards at Listowel, BALLYBUNION lies about ten miles away on the coast at the mouth of the Shannon. It does have a kind of charm - it's the sort of sleepy resort that most people remember with a mixture of affection and horror from childhood holidays, and there are good sandy beaches - but unless you're beguiled by nostalgia you're unlikely to want to stay long. If you do, in addition to the complement of cheerful tat, pubs and amusement arcades, there are two golf courses, the caves under the cliffs and the seaweed baths to occupy you. One of the cliff caves, the Seven Sisters cave , is named after the seven daughters of a local chieftain, who tried to elope with seven Norsemen he was holding prisoner. When the plan was discovered, their father had them thrown through the roof of the cave. Perhaps the town's most intriguing feature is its seaweed baths . In Ballybunion, great store is set by the restorative powers of seaweed: in the past, local people would take to the sea at the end of the summer, to ease joints aching from the exertions of the harvest, and there are two bathing houses - dating back to the 1920s - perched above Ladies' Strand. Collins' and Dalys' seaweed baths both consist of a series of private bathrooms, supplied with hot salt water from a constantly stoked boiler and seaweed gathered from the Black Rocks beyond the headland each morning. After your soothing, slithery soak you can take a tray of restorative tea and apple tart onto the beach. B&Bs in this holiday resort tend to be expensive (and full) in summer. A couple worth trying are Invergordon , Cliff Rd (tel 068/27246; GBP26-33/?33.01-41.90), and Doon House , Doon Rd (tel 068/27411; GBP40-55/?50.79-69.84), but you'll save a long walk around the "No Vacancy" signs by checking out possibilities first at the tourist office , which operates in season out of a mobile caravan: check at the local post office for details of its whereabouts. Visit BALLYHEIGUE further down the coast, for a quieter option, where there's camping at Casey's Caravan & Camping Park (closed mid-September to Easter; tel 066/713 3195). Allow yourself to be beguiled by the flatlands of the Shannon estuary , if you've time to spare on your onward journey, whose quiet plains are bathed in the oblique light of the west and dotted with monasteries and castles. The ruined fifteenth-century Carrigafoyle Castle rises miraculously from the water, joined to the land by a causeway; close by, a road separates two sheets of water, the land it's built on long since submerged.
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