county in the province of Munster, southwestern Ireland. Kerry is bounded by Counties Limerick and Cork to the east and by the Atlantic Ocean or its inlets to the south, west, and north. Tralee is the county seat. Composed of sandstone, the principal highlands of Kerry are among the highest mountains in Ireland. Three, and part of a fourth, of the six Atlantic peninsulas of southwestern Ireland are in Kerry. These consist of mountainous ridges, in places intersected by deep valleys and generally surrounded by lowlands. The four peninsulas are the Kerry Head peninsula, the most northerly, 7 miles (11 km) long; the Dingle peninsula, which extends for nearly 40 miles (64 km) from Tralee to the Blasket Islands; the Iveragh peninsula, 30 miles (48 km) long and 15 miles (24 km) wide, which continues the line of hills from western County Cork to Valencia Island; and the Beara peninsula, the most southerly one. The highest points on the peninsulas include Baurtregaum (2,798 feet 【853 metres】) and Brandon Mountain (3,127 feet 【953 metres】) on the Dingle peninsula and Carrantuohill (3,414 feet 【1,041 metres】) and Mangerton (2,756 feet 【840 metres】) on the Iveragh peninsula.

The winters in Kerry are mild; vegetation grows throughout the year, livestock may be pastured in winter, and the woods of Killarney have arbutus trees of Mediterranean origin. Annual rainfall is high, and some of the deep peat bogs have remnants of forests dating from drier climatic phases.