Qualla: Maharees https://qualla.com/maharees en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:11 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/2/c/maharees-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Maharees https://qualla.com/maharees Maharees: Introduction https://qualla.com/maharees/ Photo credit Superbass, CC BY-SA 4.0. Listen for the call at dusk on a warm spring night and you may hear it - a rasping, rattling chorus drifting up from the wet hollows behind the dunes. The Natterjack toad is one of Ireland's rarest amphibians, native only to a small handful of west Kerry sites, and the Maharees peninsula is one of its strongholds. The toads breed in shallow temporary pools among the dunes, the sort of pools that fill with rain in March and dry out by July. The Maharees sand creates those pools by accident. The toads have been calling here since the last ice age. The geography that keeps them - five kilometres of dune and beach jutting north from the Dingle Peninsula - is the same geography that shelters Fenit Harbour, hosts surfers and divers, and ties together half a dozen small Kerry communities.

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/2/c/maharees-wp/gc2c-maharees-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Maharees: Tombolo Geography https://qualla.com/maharees/ Photo credit Superbass, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Maharees - Na Machairi in Irish, meaning the plains - is technically a tombolo, a sandy spit that joins what was once an island to the mainland. Five kilometres long, narrow enough to walk across in twenty minutes, the peninsula extends due north from the Dingle Peninsula coa...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/2/c/maharees-wp/gc2c-maharees-tombolo-geography.mp3 0:06 2 full Maharees: The Natterjack Toad https://qualla.com/maharees/ Photo credit Superbass, CC BY-SA 4.0. Bufo calamita - the Natterjack toad - is one of Ireland's two native amphibian species (the other is the common frog), and the only species of toad. It survives in Ireland in only a few coastal pockets in west Kerry: the Castlemaine Harbour area, the Maharees, and a few smaller s...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/2/c/maharees-wp/gc2c-maharees-the-natterjack-toad.mp3 0:06 3 full Maharees: Surfing and Diving https://qualla.com/maharees/ Photo credit Superbass, CC BY-SA 4.0. Brandon Bay on the western side of the peninsula opens to long Atlantic swells that wrap around the coast and break on the long beach. With the right wind and tide, the bay produces some of the best surfable waves in Ireland. Sandy Bay welcomes beginners. The exposed beaches furt...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/2/c/maharees-wp/gc2c-maharees-surfing-and-diving.mp3 0:06 4 full Maharees: Three Hamlets https://qualla.com/maharees/ Photo credit Superbass, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Maharees holds three hamlets: Fahamore at the northern tip, Kilshannig on the western shore, and Candeehy further south. Together they contain perhaps a few hundred year-round residents, supplemented in summer by holiday-home occupants and visitors at the various campgrounds ...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/2/c/maharees-wp/gc2c-maharees-three-hamlets.mp3 0:06 5 full Maharees: What the Sand Defends https://qualla.com/maharees/ Photo credit Superbass, CC BY-SA 4.0. Fenit Harbour, the main port of County Kerry, sits in the lee of the Maharees on the southeast side of Tralee Bay. The harbour is sheltered from the large Atlantic swells that would otherwise sweep across the bay because the Maharees absorbs and refracts those swells before they ...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/2/c/maharees-wp/gc2c-maharees-what-the-sand-defends.mp3 0:06 6 full