West Coast of Ireland
Irelands, Wild Atlantic Way is spectacular. This coast road has lots of wonderful stopping points of interest that peek my imagination.
Leaving my home city of Belfast, which lies on the North East coast of Northern Ireland. Heading for Donegal which is on the North West of Ireland.
Irelands, Wild Atlantic Way is spectacular. This coast road has lots of wonderful stopping points of interest that peek my imagination.
Previously I have visited the northern areas of County Donegal for photography. However, I have only visited Donegal town as a child. Times with my family but not as an adult so I figured let’s head there to make new memories.
Arriving in Donegal town reasonably late in the evening. My first priority was to walk Boris (my Borzoi) around giving him chance to stretch his legs and sniff all the lamp posts in this new town plus do all the other things which a dog needs to do.
After leaving him back in the van, we bee-line for a bar in the hope to get a bite to eat and the much-needed pint.
Problem is, this was the first opportunity to get out since the lockdown.
I was naive little did I know that it was no longer appropriate to simply walk into the restaurant and get a table. The new normal is starting to appear.
We failed to get anything to eat on that first night and went to bed hungry.
Malin Beg.
Waking the next morning and off to the coast.
The first stop on my tour along the west coast of Ireland for photography that my camera got out of the bag was at Malin Beg.
Malin Beg Beach
County Donegal’s most westerly point, Malin Beg has a lovely little beach in a bay which as you can see from the images I present here has beautiful sands surrounded by grass-covered cliffs.
While the first of my two images are shot from a height looking down. My second image is down at sea level. Both images were captured with a wide-angle lens in order to display the vast landscape.
Slieve League
The cliffs of Slieve League. A cliff walk in County Donegal where on a normal day would have had high potential for photography. Spotting lots of different compositions to make intriguing images would have been easier. Except for this morning when we visited this location, we were faced with weather to try our patients. The rain coming in off the Atlantic Ocean on the west coast gave us poor visibility. As we were walking the path hail stones were pelting down right into our faces making it hard to keep our eyes on where it was we were headed. At one stage it was the only option to take cover by the boulders just beside the walkway. The first of my photography images here were captured from that very spot.
I decided to wait it out. Letting ten minutes pass by and the hail turned to simple rain. My clothes were soaked through I decided to return to the van and get heated up and dried off.
A while later, the weather had improved so we made a second run at it. My second photography image shows you the cliff edge at the end of the walkway. It had proved well worth the effort and time spent on this part of the west coast of Ireland.
Ballycastle Cliffs
In County Mayo, the cliffs are spectacular. Here I present the image of Ballycastle cliffs on the shore.
When it came to capturing this particular image it was necessary for me to put Boris back into the van. He sensed the danger and had been making himself heard as he told me to come back to safety.
On a windy day such as the occasion when I captured this image I needed to stay low to the ground to enable me not to be blown over the cliff edge.
I am intending to revisit the area to reshoot the images standing tall which will give a different view altogether.
Ballyvaughan
Misty Morning at Ballyvaughan
Ballyvaughan County Claire.
Of each of the mornings I was away, this was the one where I had my earliest start on this occasion. I got up out of the van on this misty morning while the sunrise was predicted to be at 5:17 am that morning. had peaked my head out and there was no vibrancy in the sky whatsoever. visibility was considered poor.
I however saw the opportunity to capture some long-exposure images. This particular shot was a mere one-and-a-third of a second exposure time.
The Cliffs of Moher
It was on reaching the Cliffs Of Moher my spirits were at their lowest. Upon arrival, the rain was pretty heavy.
The Cliffs of Moher was the biggest landmark I had planned to visit while touring the West Coast of Ireland for photography during this week’s holidays.
I had then needed to talk myself into getting out in the rain leaving the comfort of the van and hoping that the old saying would once again come true.
Westport
Returning to County Mayo the weather had eventually improved.
Westport is a lovely little town on the coastline of County Mayo. These images were captured down at the Quay. There is a great collection of shops which sell a variety of crafts and I spent around an hour chatting with a photographer who set up a gallery on Westport Quay. Her images of Ireland are amazing.
The weather on this day was the best of the week and it was at this point that the reality of everyday life required that I came home to Belfast.
My trip along the Wild Atlantic way was my longest journey up to this point. The weather threw in a few obstacles along the way and quite a lot of the locations where I had stopped didn’t see my camera come out of the bag.
I really enjoyed my travels along the Wild Atlantic Way therefore I have no doubt that I will be revisiting the West coast of Ireland several times to capture the amazing scenery it has to offer.
The Images which I have captured on this trip are available for online purchase.
