County Dossier
Kerry
A county of peaks, peninsulas and long Atlantic weather.
Kerry fills the far south-west of Ireland, where mountain ranges, glacial lakes and projecting peninsulas create one of the island's most dramatic landscapes.
At a glance
Kerry at a glance
A county of peaks, peninsulas and long Atlantic weather.
- Mountain kingdom of the south-west
- County by the early modern period
- Reeks, lakes and Atlantic peninsulas
- Area: 1,832 sq miles / 4,745 sq km
- Population: 145,502
- County Top: Carrauntoohil (3,406ft / 1,038m)
County Geography
Kerry meets Limerick to the east and Cork to the south-east, while the Shannon estuary, Atlantic, and open southern sea form the rest of the county’s outer edge. The county is shaped by its mountain ranges, its indented coastal inlets, and the great peninsulas projecting westward into the ocean.
Kerry is easy to recognise through its mountain core, lake basin, and Atlantic peninsulas.
Map Reference
View Kerry on the map
Kerry is the county. The map shows its boundary, places, and neighbouring counties.
The county.
The county boundary.
Nearby counties and places.
Places and routes
Tralee, Killarney, Dingle, Kenmare, and Cahersiveen show the county from its northern and inland core to its western and southern peninsular sides.
Connections
The county’s routes have long crossed between Tralee and Killarney, followed the lake and valley corridors, and run outward toward Dingle, Kenmare, and Cahersiveen. Movement follows the same mountain, lake, plain, and peninsula pattern.
Names
- Kerry
- County Kerry
- County of Kerry
Ciarraí is the Irish form of Kerry. County Kerry is the formal historical style, the county name reaches back to the people of Ciar, and the older county background lies in the mountain kingdom and Atlantic-speaking districts of the south-west.
Kerry became a county in the early modern period, but its mountain-and-peninsula geography and older Gaelic continuity long predate that formal step. That south-western geography still gives the historic county a clear shape.