North Atlantic Skyline - - Photographs from the west of Ireland (Galway, Mayo, Clare, Limerick, Roscommon and even Leitrim)

Special Needs

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An Dreoilín

A wren (dreoilín) with fresh food (an earwig) about to feed the brood. Picture taken on a beautiful sunny morning along the Alder Trees walk between Galway and Moycullen on June 26th, this year.

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Choughs of Inis Mór

I was on a walkers' weekend on Inis Mór a few weeks ago, and on the Sunday, we went on a coast walk. At one point, after staring at a map, the leader declared that we were going to look at the puffins' holes. Wow, I thought, I didn't think we could get that close. As it turned out, I had misheard (I was at the back, as usual). We were going to see the 'puffing holes' or blowholes - holes formed by waves undercutting the cliff-face and eventually eroding all the way to the clifftop, tens of metres from the edge.(Phew!)

We had stopped to look at the biggest one (below) when I saw of pair of birds alight on the rocks about 70 metres away. They looked like crows but with one difference - their brightly coloured feet and beaks. They were two choughs (pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax, apparently), members of the crow family that often nest along the coast (and sometimes in sea-caves of which there are many on the island). They kept a beady eye on me as I approached to take the photograph above - they need not have bothered since I nearly blundered into another blowhole not once but twice while gawping through the viewfinder instead of watching where I was walking.

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Diamond's Bar, Renvyle

Every modern tourist need catered for...horse-riding, seafood and an internet connecton to blog about it afterwards.

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The Nag's Head

Why the long face? A quick chat with one of the locals at Renvyle, with Mhaol Reidh (Mweelrea) in the background. Picture taken in the middle of July this year.

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Church of the Wayside

Church of the Wayside, Connemara.

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Powered down

The decommissioned peat-burning powerstation in Bellacorrick, Co. Mayo. Huge windfarms are planned to be built in its stead (there are a good few turbines in operation behind the station already).

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Lovely Leitrim?

It has been pointed out to me that Leitrim isn't well represented on the site here. As if that was a bad thing. Picture of a ghoul (aka the most cheerful man in Leitrim) at the old church at Fenagh.

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Blackberry Point

One of the best places for blackberries is out at Finvarra, beyond the Flaggy Shore in the Burren. The hedgerow out to the Martello tower at the Point are laden with berries. I'll probably head over there this weekend to sample the fare, and there'd better be plenty left when I get there, ok?

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Full Moon

It's a full moon tonight, so feel free to howl at it. You'll probably recognise it from this picture, which is of an almost full moon taken last night over the Claddagh (and everywhere else too, come to think of it). Picture taken with the Canon 350D and the 75-300 at full zoom (effectively at 480 mm zoom) and that is a crop from the original shot (i.e. not reduced or zoomed in Photoshop).

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Loads of potential

100% mortgages? Housing bubble? No problem - this one is ready to walk into...

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Dawn of the Dead

A winter's dawn over the temporary lake that forms most winters beside the graveyard at Kilmacduagh, Co. Galway.

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Forthill Glasshouse

Plant growing in Forthill cemetery, in the heart of Galway city. The glass is stuck into the wall to stop intruders (or maybe escapees!)

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Birch unfurled

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Fishing by the Black Fort

Fisherman out early yesterday morning, by Dún Dúchathair (the Black Fort) on Inish Mór (the largest of the Aran Islands) off the west coast of Galway.

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Not to be

Vanquished.

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Rush Hour

OK, it's not Inish Mor...Picture posted ahead of time, since I won't be near D'internet until Monday.

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Spin Dry, Inis Mor

I'm off to Inis Mor for the weekend - luckily, heavy and sustained rain is predicted.

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Fading light

The evenings are getting shorter, and mornings beginning later...we're drifting towards the darkness of winter, even in the midst of the warmest and sunniest of days. Picture taken at the sunrise of the winter solstice just before last Christmas at one of Galway's most sacred sites.

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Boatpond

What do you do when the sea doesn't quite reach your back door ? Dig a pond half way up a hill to float your boat. This boat is 'parked' half way up the hill at Pollatomish, overlooking Broadhaven Bay, and was almost directly in the path of the landslide that came crashing down the hill a couple of years ago.

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Dysert O Dea

This doorway, in the old Dysert O Dea church near Ennis, dates from the late 17th century, though there was a church on the same site for nearly 1,000 years before that. Some of the carved heads of the doorway seem exotic and foreign, and decidely not European. I'm nearly sure I can see a St. Fu Manchu among them. Even more disturbing is the fact that one of them resembles "Saint" Frank Dunlop. Oh dear...

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From the Air

I must say, Google Earth is very cool. The screenshot above is of Galway, and you really do get a great feel for the wildness of west Galway and the vastness of Lough Corrib. The picture shows the new sewage plant on Mutton Island in the foreground (and the discolouration around it is, I hope, cloud).The really cool thing is that you can tilt the view, so that instead of looking at a two-dimensional map, the mountains suddenly rise from the screen, as in the screenshot of Croagh Patrick, below.

Of course, taking a virtual flight over Galway is not quite the same as actually getting into a helicopter and taking real photographs. Sean has done just that, and you can see the results over at Random Panderings.

The Galway Camera Club resumes meetings on September 15th - I've been a lapsed members for a few years now, but I'll be back on Thursday week (the website says Wednesday but the poster outside the Galway Camera Shop says the 15th).

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Creature Comforts

For the special cow in your life...I'll only get myself into trouble if I put a caption here, so I'll let you guys do it instead. All comments welcome...

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