Our Top 10 Best Viewing Points in Killarney National Park
The TodaysWanderluster Team welcomes you to our brand new series, our own burning list of the “Top 10 Best Viewing Points”. This great idea has been recently brought into us and we are happy to address that we will be considering to have it be introduced as seperate blog articles on our page, where at the moment, will appear every second week on our website.
In this series, together, we will be exploring some of the best viewing points or spots worth visiting, all from some of our previous locations earlier in our adventure.. but not only,
…the ‘Killarney for the Photographers’ will be our first article in which we will be marking out the x’s on our map, all that will guarantee some of the best or already hugely popular and known sights or views you will come across in the Killarney National Park along with certain spots that may or may have not been mentioned out in the streets but remain unknown to the majority of us.
Are you a photographer? Or do you just love to take photos? Whatever the story might be,
either amateur or professional, this article and series, will be for you!
TodaysWanderluster present’s you, with this week’s article on the Top 10 Best Viewing Points, ‘Killarney for the Photographers’
Let’s Go!..
Notice > The TodaysWanderluster Team respects the rules in relation to Copyright. We do our best to only and ever display the work taken by our team members in our blog articles, unfortunetly at the present moment our team cannot guarnatee greater variety of images to display within our articles, however that will not halt our effort in writing our articles for you.
>TodaysWanderluster Team suggests using Google Maps with this article.
>Contact us if located any mistakes in this article here
The Mahoney’s Point
Located north of the Lough Leane Lake on the Mahony’s Point. This viewing point overlooks the park’s largest lake the Lough Leane and the far distant McGillicuddy Reeks (the highest mountain range in Ireland).
Ross Island – Southern Cape
This viewing point is located on the southern end of the Ross Island and is one of the the few viewing points on the Island that we think offers the best views of the McGillicuddy Reeks (south of Muckross Lake). An image taken there would be vignetted partially by the greenery of the tall trees that put the photographer in shade, feature bathing in the Muckross Lakes islands the ‘Cow Island’ and the McGillicuddy Reeks in the background.
Ross Castle – ‘the small stone deck‘
From there, we are jumping over to the Ross castle with our viewing point located south-west of the castle at the small stone lakeside deck. This viewing point would allow a photographer to take an amazing photo of the southern side of the castle aswell as the lake it faces and again the McGillicuddy Reeks (which from this angle seem to be almost sitting in a nest of trees) that appear on the other side.
If one would be eager to try and capture both in the frame, an advice the TodaysWanderluster will give, is to take a few steps back from the the tree that stands just to the left of this lake-side deck.
Muckross Abbey – Lakeside East
The viewing point we are talking about here is located at the Muckross abbey from the eastern side of the landmark. An image taken there would feature the ‘Chancel’ part of the abbey ruins together with it’s tower that seem to be almost entirely surrounded by the greenery of the trees that keep the abbey company when nobody is around. Turning 180 degrees in the clockwise direction whilst maintaining the same spot, one who would be taking a photo encapsulating a small landscape of fields decorated by trees that make them, their home.
The abbey has much more areas that would allow for an amazing photo to be taken, like from the abbey’s interior – an image taken there would show some of the features of the Muckross abbey interior like the ‘Nave’ part of the building. An image taken west of the abbey would feature the abbey and it’s cemetary that can be found there. Selecting a unique spot in that area may make the photo a good one to upload perhaps on Halloween.
“Front or… to the side?”
There is absolutely no guide that would be heavily indebted to the ground on where to take the perfect photo of the Muckross House, as the choices are endless. One may stand directly facing the Muckross House and take a ‘breath taking away’ image. However, we think that whether the image would be excellent or not when taken, the image itself would lose on all the possible detail that it could have featured if only taken from the right angle and spot. The TodaysWanderluster team suggests taking a photo, where the mansion is featured on one side of the image (left hand side or right) and where something else.. like the gardens along with the mountains in the distance, would be featured on the other side.
Muckross Lake – Lakeside East
This viewing point is located at the eastern end of the Muckross lake. It a small rocky strand positioned at the lake, north of the Torc waterfall and of trail! Which makes it a little bit more difficult to reach, however once found… it’s a 360 degree photographer’s paradise as one would describe it as “beauty all-around”.
An image taken to the west would feature the Muckross lake with the far distant western end of the Muckross lake, overgrown by trees. Mountains would dominate the entire picture if taken to the south west and to the south, an image would feature some of the most distinct trees in that part of the park along with the grassy fields and coniferous forest making up the background.
Torc Waterfall
And as mentioned ….This viewing point can be found with the aid of the signs in the area and after hopping off from the ‘ring of kerry’ road. An image taken there would feature a fast moving waterfall with it’s clear waters that hit of every stone on it’s way down to meet with the rocks and boulders, appearing motionless in the photo. This image would appear vignetted with the shade and greenery produced by the surrounded trees.
“A little bit higher”
This viewing point is located among several others on this trail that starts at Killarney hiking parking lot (south of the Torc waterfall) and ends at Pallas (West of Torc waterfall).
This trail is a mountain hiking experience which bring’s out perhaps, some of the best of the Killarney National Park as we get to discover it, from a much different angle that overlooks the entire park. The spot we are talking about is located in the middle of this trail, with the aid of Google Maps, you’ll be able to navigate this spot pretty fast.
‘Where the waters meet’
This viewing point is one of the more known spots on our list, located to the very west of Torc waterfall and Pallas, south of the Dinish Islands. An image taken there would feature the lovely fresh and crystal clear Killarney waters that flow through this river, the rivers banks on both sides that seem to be wearing an armour of rock, aswell as the vibrant green produced by the trees that make residence there.
Depending on where you are standing or positioning the camera, you may capture an even more distinct image when capturing the ‘Old Weir Bridge’ that seems to be the only man made structure there from where the water rushes through, underneath the archway of this stone bridge.
Another viewing point in this area is located just a few steps to the north, (we call it “at the bend”.. yea we know, it’s only original) however this viewing point is located at a river bend and an image taken there would feature the countless boulders that stick out from the river bed appearing in the middle of the river aswell as that colour green we already mentioned that becomes dominant in the area.
“Off-Trail”
This viewing point we consider to be one of the most distinct from our list. Currently our team is doing research on the location of this area so unfortunetly we may not provide you with the information as to, where to find this viewing point in the Killarney National Park, however should you know any information that would help us find it’s’ location you can let us know in the comment section below.
This viewing point is a rocky strand that seems to gradually make it’s way down to the Muckross lake. An image taken on this strand would encapsulate the McGillicuddy Reeks which seem to stand proud in the background and the large body of water that flows between the photographer holding the camera and the mountains in the distance that almost appear blue in colour. We suggest trying out all the different angles, experimenting on how to take a ‘one of a kind’ photo.
View 2016 Full Galery here.
View 2020 Full Galery here.
Another spot that’s located near to this viewing point, is that of the two bridges one already passed when getting there, the wooden bridge and then, the stone bridge (one of many that can be stumbled upon within the park) that connect the two sides of the small stream that flows underneath and into one of the lakes of Killarney National Park.
That’s all for this week !! Thank you for joining us on this adventure of the Killarney National Park. We hope you enjoyed reading this blog post and found it informative. Stay tuned for our up-coming article, ‘Bunratty Castle’ and our previous article on the ‘Killarney National Park’ you may find here . You may share with us your feedback in our comments box below which will be hugely appreciated by our team.
Support us by following our page and become a member of the ‘TodaysWanderluster’ Team. Check out our Instagram page here at dk.photography2003, where you can browse through our most recent posts on our Gallery, the 2020 Edits of the Killarney National Park and the Ring of Kerry featuring the Ladies Viewing Point and Castlecove Beach taken in 2016, aswell as our present location at Limerick city.
Au revoir and have a lovely weekend
TodaysWanderluster 
2 thoughts on “Killarney for the Photographers”