My fellow f4 chums and I had arranged to go to Killarney this year for our annual trip. Blue skies, an Indian Summer and Guinness were on the cards. A fly in the ointment called Storm Brian decided to intervene and we got one out of the three – Guinness. It was blowing a gale and we had rain – one day was decidedly bad but we certainly had rain in small quantities the rest of the time as well. Fortunately we had decided upon a variety of places to photograph, some inside, notable Muckross Abbey and Killarney Cathedral (which was beautiful).
We were also told where we could find some stags and although the main rut was over, the stags were still bellowing at each other from within their newly acquired harems. We also were looking forward to Ladies View – a well known and extremely picturesque place – but not when we went, there was a lot of mist and rain so we had a cuppa at the local cafe instead.
We had hoped to take some images at Ross Castle but there’s a photography ban so that was an epic fail as well. However, Torc waterfall provided one or two decent shots and as there had been a lot of water we got some good images – my favourite was of a single big rock at the foot of the falls with water swirling around it.
Our last day was blustery and rainy so we arranged to go to Crag Cave, just north of Killarney and we found the folk there to be extremely welcoming and helpful and we managed to have our best session of the break there, taking lots of long exposure shots underground in the cave. Excellent cafe and gift shop there too. If you’re around the Killarney area, it’s well worth the visit. After Crag Cave we went to Blennerville to see the windmill and then on to Fenit Bay to see the lighthouse. funny – it was almost too windy to get out the car for the windmill and the spray at Fenit Bay almost obscured the lighthouse. Sometimes the spray was going completely over the lighthouse but needless to say I missed that shot.
Still, all in all, the 8 of us who went had a terrific break and despite the weather a good time was had by all.