EVENING AT CLOGHER HEAD 2

Since my recent post, Evening at Clogher Head, I returned again to try and get some more photos before the light faded, and I also hoped to get a decent sunset.

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Looking over towards Dunmore Head, above.

The sun was casting a weak pink light over the landscape

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This is one of my favourite places on the peninsula, with wonderful vistas.

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Hoping for a good sunset is like hoping to win the lottery! This was not the best one I’ve seen, but at least the sun wasn’t covered in thick cloud, as it often is here.

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The Sleeping Giant, lies peacefully in the warm light of the disappearing sun.

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I zoomed in close to get this one above, creating the illusion that the whole sky was ablaze with colour – which it wasn’t really.

I enjoy creating images in the evening light. There are several more from diffferent places – even different countries, to be seen on this tag:

https://www.helene-brennan.com/tag/evening+light

Thanks for visiting. Good health to all.

WILD ATLANTIC WALK

These photos were taken from Clogher Beach and the cliff walk to Cuas na nEighe from the beach. This is the place for massive, wild and wonderful waves, where many people – photographers and others go to capture the Atlantic wildness, or just to observe and enjoy it.

This rock above can send the most enormous splash way up to the sky. Photographers love to catch this moment. It always happens just when you take your eye off the ball, in a manner of speaking. I’ve seen some arrive with their tripods and camera pointed at the rock, ready for the event, and not being side-tracked by any of the lovely dancing light on the spray etc. They leave as soon as they capture it. Nothing else matters.

If you follow my posts you would have seen many other photos from this place, but as I often say, it changes every day, with the wind and the light.

Lace-like patterns swoosh towards the beach.

The island above right is Inis Tuaisceart, one of the Blasket Island group, commonly known as The Sleeping Giant, or locally known as Fear Marbh (Dead Man). It appears in many of my photos and paintings.

The Island in the distance above is another Blasket Island, the Tiaracht. It resembles the Great Skellig Rock, near the Iveragh Peninsula of South Kerry. Many people get confused with it,

I love these dancing shapes riding on top of the water, with the spray flying in the wind.

The next six images are from Cuas na nEighe, one of the most wild and wonderful places on the Dingle Peninsula, in my view.

At Cuas na nEighe, with Sybil Head in view.

These big splashes are so irresistable.

On the return towards Clogher Beach.

I hope you enjoy these coastal pics.

More Clogher Beach and Cosán na nEighe images

Thanks so much for visiting.

TRIP TO THE LOCAL

A trip to the local would normally mean to the local pub here, but with all the pubs still closed, now it’s a trip to the local beach! Much more healthy of course. This is another look at Béal Bán (White Mouth) Beach in Ballyferriter, on the Dingle Peninsula. My followers may remember several views from here in the past. I don’t like to go for a walk without my camera, so hopefully these photos are sufficiently different from previous versions.

I have a new camera for these past couple of months and I’ve recently realised that the date in the camera is in 2028! I thought I had re-set it but apparently not. Only discovered that after serious delving into why Google refused to publish a photo. They were unable to tell me why, but eventually I worked it out for myself. There are just too many photos taken now to change all the dates in, so hopefully these images don’t cause too much of a problem.

I never tire of watching the waves and capturing them.

Carraig Dubh (Black Rock) is the name of this rock – I’m told. I have been given other information, but I’ll go with the first.

It was quite a dull afternoon with glimpses of bright sunlight and dark shadows.

I find many of the normally sandy beaches here have a lot of stones on them recently, as the sand appears to have been dragged out with the storms. I hope the sand comes back with more storms. It does come and go a lot.

These birds were enjoying some quiet down time until I came along – they weren’t long moving.

Winter sea swimming has become so popular these days. They say it does wonders for your health. I’m not convinced.

Doubt if they expected waves this size!

Oops – they’re gone! They did re-appear.

Mount Brandon with a bright fluffy hat.

These cows were quietly enjoying the view over the sea.

I hope you enjoyed this trip to the local with me. These and many other photos of this beach and other local trips in the Ballyferriter area can be seen on this link:

https://www.helene-brennan.com/tag/ballyferriter

STORM BELLA

Storm Bella has been blowing for a couple of days now. Today I went out for a few shots of big waves, hoping it wouldn’t be too challenging for me.

These photos were taken in the Ballydavid area of the Dingle Peninsula, in the South West of Ireland.

I have to say it was indeed difficult to stand up to the cold strong North West winds, while being battered by rain, hail and sea spray. My fingers went numb, making it difficult to manage the controls on my camera. Keeping my lens clean was impossible. I had to continually wipe it, only to create a smeared affect on the lens. The spray was relentless.  I lost a lot of good images through having a foggy lens.

The results weren’t the best I’ve ever done, but I’m glad I went out and got the fresh air. In these covid days we have to make an effort.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for visiting. If you enjoy images of turbulent sea, please visit my website:

https://www.helene-brennan.com/tag/turbulent+sea

LEFT OF MOUNT BRANDON

On this walk we took a path to the left of Mount Brandon, a different side of the mountain from that my previous post. We had intended to go up Brandon but due to low cloud and skeins of foggy patches coming from the sea we thought it safer to not go to the top of the mountain.  I was secretly glad of this, to be honest, because I didn’t feel fit enough for the more challenging walk we might have taken.

 

 

The landmarks remained the same for much of the walk, but the clouds changed all the time.

 

 

 

This is how Brandon appeared as clouds rolled by.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My guess at this story is that the farmer left this old vehicle here to use as storage for his fencing materials, and it was first vandalised by human eejits, and later attacked by multiple storms.

These two photos were taken in the same minute, and look how quickly the picture can change in this kind of weather.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We accidentally deviated from our path and arrived at this cliff edge, and sat for our picnic on the grassy slopes below, where I picked up a few sheep ticks – again!  There is Lyme disease here, but one can stay at home and be safe, or go out and take chances.  At least you can’t pass Lyme disease on to anyone else, unlike Covid-19.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, back down on low ground, and even on the correct route, just signposted with no obvious path.

A lovely walk with great views, and the foggy clouds even added to the beauty of the scenes. I hope you enjoyed the images.

Thanks for viewing my post. Please click on this tag for different views of Mount Brandon, photos and paintings on my website:

https://www.helene-brennan.com/tag/mount+brandon

MOODY HUES

Some recent photos from my local beach Béal Bán, Ballyferriter, on the Dingle Peninsula, South West Ireland. It was one of those moody days, when the light quality could change in an eye-blink. Just a normal day here really.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I guessed that the tartan slippers belonged to the occupant of a camper parked here. They created an unlikely and incongruous image by the beach.

Thanks for visiting my post, I hope you enjoyed  this beach walk.  Please visit my website for more Dingle Peninsula photos, with images of several other lovely beaches in this area.

https://www.helene-brennan.com/c25–photos-of-dingle-peninsula

DINGLE HARBOUR AND MARINA

In this post I am showing images of Dingle Harbour and Marina, which are the soul of this popular little town and tourist resort.

 

A boat full of tourists (now less full than usual, to facilitate social distancing) heads out to see Fungie, the Dingle Dolphin, which has lived here of his own free will, since 1983, and has brought millions of Euro to the area.

 

 

 

In the Dingle sunrise, there are some signs of work starting.  Some of these very early morning shots were taken a few years ago.  It’s rare for me to get up early to capture the sunrise.

 

I loved capturing the light on the boats and the reflections in the still morning water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Setting out on a fishing trip in the light of the rising sun.

 

 

The above was taken recently, but not so early in the morning as the previous shots, the colours look so different.

 

 

 

In this photo above the boats in the foreground are traditional currachs, known in Dingle as Naomhóg, (pronounced nave-oge) which means Young Saint.  They have a timber framework and are covered in tarred canvas. They used to be used for transport between the islands and for fishing. The style of these boats have been adapted for racing, built by Eddie Hutch, who with Maunza Heidke have been dedicated to the traditional sport of racing the naomhóg, and have run the Dingle Rowing Club for several years. See below a photo of naomhóg lined up for a race at the Dingle Regatta, an annual event, but sadly not this year, because of Covid-19.

 

 

 

 

Some more recent photos below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At Dingle Pier can be seen the face of Charlie Haughey, who was the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland for a number of years, in and out of office until 1992. He died in 2006. Some loved him, some didn’t. But here he is in Dingle because he was instrumental in providing funds for creating the excellent harbour and marina in Dingle, and that has been a significant factor in the development of all the marine activities here.

The following photos were taken as I was out rowing in a naomhóg, the traditional rowing boat as described above. It’s a great opportunity to get captures I wouldn’t get from the shore.

 

 

 

 

Really, there’s so much more to Dingle than I could describe here, although it’s only  a small town; I have only given snippets of it’s character.

Thanks for visiting my blog. I hope you will return periodically. I confess to feeling a bit blog-fatigued recently and it gets harder to keep up the enthusiasm, but hopefully my motivation will return.

Meantime, there are loadsa pics of the Dingle Peninsula on my website:

https://www.helene-brennan.com/c25–photos-of-dingle-peninsula

BALLYDAVID WALK

This was a walk along the coast and cliffs from the small village of Ballydavid, just a few km down the coast from my home. Thrift (sea pinks) were in bloom and looking glorious.

 

 

 

 

Above, looking across to Mount Eagle; the small beach opposite is Wine Strand, which has appeared in many of my posts, from a closer viewpoint across the way.

 

The small lookout post above was one of 83 that were built during World War 2 around the coast of Ireland and were manned by the Local Defence Force.

 

Cruach Mharhain and  Mount Eagle (right and left) opposite, viewed across from Ballydavid.

 

The Three Sisters above and below, also to be seen in many of my photos.

 

 

 

The headland in the distance above is Ballydavid Head.

Below, another view of the WW2 lookout post.

 

More images of the Ballydavid area can be seen on my website:

https://www.helene-brennan.com/tag/ballydavid

As always, I appreciate your visit. Do take care.

SUNSET ON MY DOORSTEP

You can never tell when you are going to get a really brilliant sunset. Tonight’s glory crept up on me with my back turned to the west. I had to run outside with my camera to grab something before it disappeared altogether.

Only last night I was beach walking at sunset (see this mornings post) and it was only an ok sunset, but tonight when I was in my home it took me by surprise. I was not about to ignore it –  even though I have so, so many captures of sunsets from this spot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks so much for visiting. Many sunset photos from several countries on my website:

https://www.helene-brennan.com/tag/sunset

Enquiries can be made from my website.

Stay safe

 

MURIOCH SUNSET

Another evening walk on Murioch Beach. The sky was somewhat featureless, no clouds, and the tide was a bit far out. I didn’t expect to get anything better or even as good as previously. I have shown photos from an evening walk here in previous posts, like this:

https://helenebrennan.wordpress.com/2019/08/19/evening-beach-walk/

But as the sun dropped low and the colour changed I got a few images that I thought were worth capturing.

For those Star Wars fans out there, the rocky ridged hill on the right of the picture above is Sybil Head, (Ceann Sibéal), on which the Star Wars set was located for the entire summer of 2016, during the making of The Last Jedi. Some filming was also shot on Malin Head in Donegal that same year (up north), and one or two other locations. But Star Wars was not new to Kerry that year. The Force Awakens was filmed on Skellig Michael the previous summer, in South Kerry.

More photos of Murioch (Murreagh) Beach on my website:

https://www.helene-brennan.com/tag/murioch

Do pay a visit.

Thanks for viewing my post. Stay well.