bshamilton wrote:
Delightful image, Sean.
Love the compo and color!
Barry
Thanks Barry. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I was amazed by this place. The eery trees and the deserted cottage spoke eloquently of a time long past and a world we cannot know.
A passing cyclist saw me taking photographs and stopped to tell me he once drank tea in that house. He is 50 now and he was ten at the time,so he was summoning up a memory from 40 years past.
He told me that this isolated house, the last for many miles on this mountain road, once gave hospitality to fourteen travelers on the same night. In years gone by, there were many people who wandered the roads of Ireland: the dispossessed, the mad, the lonely and the sad. In those days, instead of therapy, there was wandering. Priests, paupers, and many others wandered the roads for months or years, and sought hospitality where they could find it. This house, on wild stormy nights, on a lonely mountain road, must have heard many knocks on the door in its time.
I wonder if the search for beauty in the landscape is, in its own way, a therapy of sorts. I know that for me landscape photography is balm for the soul as well as a chance to wander.
Thanks to Loco, Bart and Charlie for your comments. Rosemary, I'm glad you enjoyed the image and the poem. Just Google the title of the poem and you can read the whole thing, if you like.
Great image and great story, My roots are from Ireland and years ago I visited Ireland on a photography trip and have many fond memories. Seeing your photo's and hearing your words in my head make me long to come back to the Emerald Isle.
Wonderful shot, Sean. I find your framing to be perfect. I love that the mossy roots dominate the foreground with much added interest in the top of the photograph.
Gura maith agat (Thanks) Sean for a lovely photo and some stirring memories and verse for an expat. Where did you take the shot? I thought it might be in the West but you could just as likely find such a scene in Wicklow.
pearlstreet wrote:
Wonderful shot, Sean. I find your framing to be perfect. I love that the mossy roots dominate the foreground with much added interest in the top of the photograph.
Sharon
Thanks Sharon. I found the exposed roots extraordinary and tried to make them a strong feature of the shot.
Martin Good wrote:
Gura maith agat (Thanks) Sean for a lovely photo and some stirring memories and verse for an expat. Where did you take the shot? I thought it might be in the West but you could just as likely find such a scene in Wicklow.
You are very welcome Martin. The shot was taken in County Kerry. There is a small mountain road that goes from Kilgarvan in south Kerry to Kealkill in County Cork. So this place is just about on the border between the two counties in a very remote mountain pass.
