Top Photographs | Roaringwater Journal

Rabbit Island

The traditional continues, with a twist. This year, instead of photos we’ve already published, we’ve gone through our albums and chosen the ones we didn’t use this year (2021) but want to share now. It’s a fairly random collection – our guiding principle was personal preference or something that jogs a pleasant memory for us, all taken in West Cork in 2021. Some of them are similar to images we have used, but that’s because we take so many! So, as every year, although we’ve provided links to relevant posts, we’ll keep the writing to a minimum – all you have to do is scroll!

A stone row shown to us by the marvellous Walking With Stones.

Nothing lifts the spirits in spring like the exuberantly flowering Blackthorn

And nothing concentrates the mind as this look, noticed in the act of climbing over a gate

Thank you to John Kelly for the treat of a visit to Reen Farm Sculpture Garden

Dunlough Lake, at Three Castle Head – the lake rather than the equally iconic castle

An Early Purple Orchid, spotted at my favourite graveyard

Couldn’t resist the delicate tracery of those wings!

Readers know my love of gates – this fabulous example appeared after I had written my two posts on vernacular gates, here and here

On the Sheep’s Head – taken during our Dander

In Castlefreke Woods – we love walking in woodland in the spring, when the bluebells are out

Inchydoney Beach – Robert wrote about it in his post Inchydoney – And Virgin Mary’s Bank

The magnificently restored Kilcoe Castle at sundown

A mysterious megalithic tomb – we’re not quite sure what type it it – on a mountain in West Cork. We haven’t written about this one yet, but getting to it was quite an adventure.

Muscle beds and a castle – quintessential West Cork! This one was taken from Roaringwater Pier.

The traces of lazy beds can still be discerned on this isolated patch at Lackavaun, on the north side of the Mizen

Early in the new year we clambered around Mount Gabriel, looking for the fabled Cauldron Pool. We found it, with Schull stretched out below.

I think I might have used this one in my Dander on the Sheep’s Head post – but what the heck, I love it so here goes again

Looking across to the Beara from the Sheep’s Head

Great drifts of Thrift at the old mine site at Dhurode, on the North Side of The Mizen

As ever, at the end of each year, we publish some favourite photos from our West Cork wanderings, like the one above from a memorable day on Long Island. We will caption each photo but apart from that, this post will be text-free. Enjoy!

A pilgrim touches the Sheela-na-Gig, part of the rituals observed during the rounds on St Gobnait’s Day in February

Three Castle Head on a glorious day

The ‘Tate’ – an installation in John Kelly’s Sculpture Garden, Reen Farm, taken during a high summer concert

Lonely ruined cottage near an abandoned mine on the Mizen

These stones at Cashelkeelty on the Beara, part of what was a stone circle, seem to mirror the landscape behind them

The Opium Poppy, a garden escape flourishing as a wild flower along a West Cork boreen

Hungry Hill on the Beara

This Neo-Gothic gate lodge is in Coolkelure

Cobwebs on gorse on a misty morning

The Ballydehob International Turnip Race is off to a good start

We made new friends on one of our island walks

On top of the world, at the Healy Pass, Beara Peninsula

A zen moment at Derreenatra, on the Mizen

Dhurode, with Bird Island, the Mizen

Crookhaven from across the water

From a bygone era, still to be found behind the shop counter at Levis’s in Ballydehob

Blackthorn blossoms, always a welcome sign of spring

Barley Lake is glimpsed as we return over the Caha Pass between Cork and Kerry

Our favourite view during a spectacular winter sunset

Looking forward to a New Year of blogging and picture taking. See you all in 2020!