Ireland 2014 |
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We spent our main holiday for 2014 in Ireland. Our first stop was West Cork, Baltimore to be precise. The trigger factors for Ireland were West Cork Whale Watching (Nic Slocum and his team) and the IWG Annual Seminar that we've attended for the last few years but just for the weekend until now. As usual for one of our multi centre holidays, there are a few pages so please click below for where you'd like to visit. |
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Our first morning was supposed to be out on the water looking for whales and dolphins. So was our first afternoon. Both trips were cancelled due to the sea being too choppy so we decided to drive from Baltimore to Mizen Head and enjoy some lovely scenery. It was really windy at Mizen Head so any London cobwebs we brought with us were well and truly blown away. |
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This is Tigger - our hire car for the holiday. |
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There were loads of wild flowers around so I'll scatter them through the page. |
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The views were spectacular all along the road. |
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We saw quite a few donkeys on the way. Saw lots of cows / cattle and a few horses and sheep as well but didn't photograph them. |
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We drove through some pretty towns and villages as we went along. |
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Sometimes you just have to make a bit of effort to get to what you're trying to photograph. |
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The blurb tells us ... Built from local slabs, this wedge shaped tomb is one of a dozen in the Mizen peninsula. It was first erected at the end of the Stone Age, around 3,000 to 2,000 BC, with its entrance deliberately lined up with the distant Mizen Peak. Archaeologists recently uncovered some burnt human bone which they radiocarbon dated to about 2,000 BC and believe that the tomb continued to be used as a sacred site in the centuries that followed. Shallow pits, probably with food offerings, were dug into the chamber floor in the later Bronze Age - between 1,250 and 550 BC - and Celtic Iron Age people filled a pit with sea shells and fish bones between 124 and 224 AD. Whale bones were also found from this period. The ritual use of the site ended with the arrival of Christianity, but it was briefly resumed during the 18th century when the tomb was used as an altar by priests who were forbidden by law to say mass in a church. |
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Jonathon's not quite as much on the edge as it appears. |
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We spent a bit of time on Barley Cove Beach - a lovely place. The sand was very soft and the bridge over to it was interesting. |
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I've no idea what he was looking for. |
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There were a few shells around and the water had left the sand damp, with pretty patterns in some places. |
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We finally arrived at Mizen Head. It wasn't really that far from Baltimore but we stopped quite a lot to take photos so it took a while to get there. Mizen Head is the most South Western point of Ireland and is closely linked with Fastnet Lighthouse. We walked across the bridge on the right. |
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The two lovely art works were in a set of five. They were on the wall of the information office - very impressive. |
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As you can see, it was a long way down! |
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I couldn't see the Fastnet Lighthouse however hard I tried! |
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No cetacean trip doesn't mean no wildlife so Jonathon enjoyed taking photos of the Gannets. He even found a lizard and some pretty little brown birds (meadow pipits I think). |
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Jonathon stayed "up top" to photograph the birds while I climbed down yet another steep slope and more steep steps to see the arch in the rock. It was beautiful but, beginner's mistake, I put my finger on the button to take the photo and the camera told me its battery was exhausted and closed down. Where was the full battery? In the car - duh! |
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We called in to Skibbereen on the way home. They were enjoying a food festival and it was very busy. |
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There was even a band. We think they were called "The Other Side" and they did decent covers of well known songs. |
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Finally back to Baltimore (after yet another quick stop to photograph some waterbirds). By bedtime it had already been established that the sea was too rough for the next day's cetacean trip so we booked to go on a different boat trip, hopefully to see seals and some birdlife. Monday was a lovely fine day so we had a wander around Baltimore and ventured up to the Beacon. |
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We were staying at The Stone House in Baltimore and Rianne and Jerry looked after us really well with comfy beds, delicious breakfasts and lots of ideas of what we could do instead of whale and dolphin watching. |
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The church on the left is Church of Ireland. |
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Rianne, our host, gave us a map and a good route to get to the Beacon whilst enjoying lovely views along the way. |
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We were delighted to see some Chough here. |
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Nosy animals, aren't they. |
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There were loads of Fuchsia hedges in the area, both cultivated (like this one) and seemingly wild in the countryside. Very colourful. |
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I don't think Jonathon realised how close to the edge he was getting this time around! |
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Jonathon spotted this furry friend, photographed him then moved him to safety off the path. |
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We "helped" with these sheep because they were running away from the farmer and, as you can see, the dog was being no help at all. You can see how tall the beacon is - if you look ever so carefully, you'll see a tiny Jonathon shaped dot on the right hand side. |
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We went out with Nic on Voyager in the afternoon. Unfortunately not far enough out to see any whales or dolphins (too rough) but we did see some seals and a few varieties of marine birds. |
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We called into Cape Clear Island, the most southerly inhabited place in Ireland, for a welcome drink. |
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The info told us that the Cape Clear Island people were the first in Ireland to believe in Christ. St Ciaran was born there in the 4th century and it is said that when he heard from sailors about the new religion in Rome he went there and embraced Christianity. He was ordained there and after thirty years returned as bishop to Ireland. He converted the island community to Christianity and built a church there. |
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I was trying to decide what kind of animal this rock formation reminded me of. I'm still not sure. |
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Back on the water again and a highlight for me was a sighting of the Fastnet Lighthouse, albeit in the misty distance. If I'd known we were going to see it today, I might not have walked to the very end of Mizen Head yesterday to not see it because of fog! |
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It was disappointing to see the gorse (furze) being burnt, particularly on a small uninhabited island like this one. I can't see the purpose and it was definitely harming (as in probably killing) the Oyster Catcher chicks that were still in their nest. So sad. |
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Back on dry land and we went to Casey's Hotel for dinner. Lovely food and good service. Jonathon even said that his meringue and strawberry desert was the best he'd ever had anywhere!
It seems this page is full so I've created a second page for West Cork - please click here to have a look at the photos for Tuesday and Wednesday. |
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