IrelandUpClose

http://www.irelandupclose.com/Images-of-Ireland--Ireland-Photos.php

Photos of Ireland | Images of Ireland | Photographs of Ireland | Fine Art Prints | Digital Downloads | Pics of Ireland | Landscape of Ireland Images of Ireland, by Robert Ardill and Cathy Ardill.

Robert Ardill on a photoshoot in Provence, France.

OUR EXHIBITION AT BRU NA BOINNE (NEWGRANGE)

This is our current exhibition at Bru na Boinne - runs from Juen 15th to July 10th. If you are in the area, please drop by! ... I'll be here most days.

Robert

A frosty winter-morning view of the Boyne near the Newgrange megalithic burial mound. The tree to the right is growing on a weir. There are lovely reflections on the river in winter.
© r&c ardill www.irelandupclose.com

West of Ireland: Galway: Connemara.

A view of Doughruagh mountain on the left and Diamond Hill on the right. Benbaun, part of the Twelve Ben range, can be seen behind Diamond Hill. The mountains in the far distance are the Maumturks.

The image was taken from near Letterfrack on a late May evening.

Bog cotton and rhododendron are lush at this time of year.

http://www.irelandupclose.com/Image-of-Connemara-Doughruagh-and-Diamond-Hill--M21783--Ireland-Photos--Galway.php

West of Ireland: Mayo/Galway: Killary Harbour.

A view of Killary Harbour at sunset with mist rolling in from the Atlantic. Mweelrea Mountain can be seen to the right of the image.

Killary Harbour is the only fjord in Ireland, carved out by glacial activity. It separates Mayo to the north (right of the picture) from Connemara in Galway to the south (left of the picture).

Mayo and Connemara have some of the most scenic landscapes and seascapes in Ireland and Killary Harbour is a fine example of this beauty.

http://www.irelandupclose.com/Image-of-Killary-Harbour--W42829--Ireland-Photos--Galway.php

IrelandUpClose
I was up on Slieve Gullion in Northern Ireland on the 23rd December with some friends. It's a 500m high hill near Newry in south County Armagh, just north of the border with County Louth in the Republic. At the top is a wonderful megalithic passage tomb. Legend has it that the Cailleach Beara (a witch who transforms into a hare) tricked Finn McCool into jumping into the Mountain's lake, from which he emerges an old and withered man. The Fianna force the Cailleach Beara to restore Finn back to his former self (but his hair remains white as an old man for the rest of his life).

At 4:00pm the setting sun enters the chamber in the passage tomb. It's an experience I will never forget - we had given up hope that we would witness this but as if by magic a cloud that was covering the sun melted away and the wonderful golden light flooded the chamber. You can see some more photos here http://www.newgrange.com/slieve-gullion.htm

http://www.irelandupclose.com/Image-of-Limerick-Lough-Gur--T2662--Ireland-Photos--Limerick.php Lough Gur in County Limerick and the surrounding land is of world-importance as an archaeological site. There are visible remains of six thousand years of human settlement, from Neolithic to Medieval times.

Lough Gur is also an important ecological area, botanically rich and a sanctuary for migratory birds.

Here is a bit of legend:

'The old folk had heard that night called All-Heal. They knew that if a sick person was not better by the eighth or ninth day of the moon he would hear Coolsidhe, The fairy music with which Aine the Banshee, spirit of Lough Gur, comforts the dying.

He would fall asleep to Suantraighe, the whispering song of sleep which Fer Fi plays on a three-stringed harp'.

I was just having a look at Thin Places Mystical Tour of Ireland's Facebook entry for the Grange Stone Circle in county Limerick and it encouraged me to go back to some photos we took of the area earlier this year. http://www.irelandupclose.com/Image-of-Limerick-Grange-Stone-Circle--T26738--Ireland-Photos--Limerick.php. The Grange stone circle is a magnificent site!

This is a picture of Halloween at Kells in St Columcille's Oratory, a wonderful stone building dating back to the 11th Century. The 'monk' is writing the Book of Kells. Kells is trying to get the Book of Kells back from Trinity College, Dublin, where it is now on view to the public.

An image of St Patrick looking out over the Boyne Valley at dawn from the monastery on the Hill of Slane.

http://www.irelandupclose.com/Image-of-Meath-St-Patrick-Hill-of-Slane--T14374--Ireland-Photos--Meath.php

The whole valley is a sea of mist. The hills in the far distance are the Dublin and Wicklow mountains. The trees peeping out of the mist in the middle distance are at the Neolithic site of Newgrange.

Photo of: East Coast of Ireland: Meath: Boyne at Stachallan.

http://www.irelandupclose.com/Image-of-Boyne-Stachallan-Winter-Evening--W40099--Ireland-Photos--Meath.php

This is one of my favourite views of the Boyne, taken from the lovely medieval Broad Boyne Bridge at Stachallan, and this particular photograph is one of my favourite ones of this scene. I love the lonely tree overhanging the river, the mist in the background and the last glimmer of the setting-sun.