Something Beautiful

Skellig Michael

The Forgotten Hermitage of Skellig Michael, by Walter W. Horn, Jenny White Marshall, and Grellan D. Rourke

Beach in Donegal

Have a look at this photo of Rossnowlagh Beach in County Donegal, Ireland. Pretty amazing, no?

Irish Beaches (for Liz E.)

One doesn't really associate Ireland with beaches, but you will find some lovely ones there if you look.

You could try, for example, Smerwick Harbour Beach in County Kerry. 

Or the beach at Dunquin, also in Kerry.   I myself have wonderful memories of a morning visit to the Dunquin beach a good many years ago.   Of course, there's lots to see around Dunquin, for example, these nearby ruins (in HDR).

Kerry is in the southwest of Ireland.   Away up in the northeast, you come to Co. Donegal where you can find this beach.   Here's a more general look at the area, called Downings.

Boyle Abbey, Co. Roscommon

The ruins of Boyle Abbey are found in Co. Roscommon, Ireland.     You can read a bit about it in this brief Wikipedia entry. 

I love the old Cistercian monastery ruins in Ireland, of which Boyle Abbey is a particularly fine example. 

And I have long loved, in particular, this marvelous stone which apparently once decorated its walls.   Magical!   

Church ruins, Aran Islands

The ruins of a very old church at Kilronan, on the island of Inishmore, in the Aran Islands, Ireland. 

A slightly different view of the same church.   

And a broader view of the cemetery surrounding it. 

Rock of Cashel

This photo was taken on the famous Rock of Cashel, Co. Tipperary, Ireland.   

The same photographer offers three photos of Irish National Park at Killarney, Co. Kerry. 

My beloved Ireland

The photo blog North Atlantic Skyline has some beautiful photographs of Ireland. 

Here's one -- Clew Bay .

And here's another that is not precisely beautiful, but is so painfully poignant that it approaches that it comes strangely close -- a deer.

A few more --

wren;

Killary Harbor;

Doolin.

Bit of Ireland

This photo of Ross Errily Friary is quite the magic carpet - it transports me immediately to my beloved Ireland. 

Aran Island Scene

This photograph was taken on one of the Aran islands (probably Inish mor).    Here are the photographer's other Aran island photos.

Great Blasket Island

I've been doing some research on the Blasket Islands, a small group of small islands off the southwest coast of Ireland.   They are no longer inhabited by human beings, but remain an object of great interest to the outside world.  Here are some photographs I was lucky enough to come across.