CianMcLiam

From the top of Cairn H, looking south east towards Cairn I on the near horizon. Early morning 21/1/07.

The soft light of late evening 13/01/07. This shows off the view a little better.

The light was terrible as I passed this on the way home, it started raining so I had to move on before fully exploring its possibilites but the north side is completely obscured by brambles.

Looking south west towards the circle on the side of the far hill.

Hard to believe this was taken within an hour of the other ‘sunnier’ pic

In between dark showers and bursts of glorious sunshine

Sunset 14/1/07

Stop sniggering down the back! Its hard to transfer a sense of sarcasm through a photo :)

(Note: Pose copyright Julian Cope 2003)

How appropriate that this turned out to be my 500th image!

Dunbeacon Stone Circle, early morning, 14/1/07

Ardrah stone row 14/1/07

Looking roughly south-west

The front of the larger tomb from roughly the south east

By the light of the moon

Leitrim portal tomb in the gloom. Weather turned bad as soon as I pulled up, got about 8 shots before the rain started to fall heavily.

Seen from behind the wall of gorse

A burst of sun below gathering storm clouds.

From afar, seen from the direction I first tried to approach (signposted route). To get to the tomb from here, you have to cross a small brook, 8 or 9 inches deep at the time I was here.

Gorse is steadily claiming the area around this tomb, two large bushes stood in the two best spots to get the dolmen and the bay behind in the shot!

Ballyrenan and the full moon, the site has either been cleared once again or the undergrowth has just died back, either way both the tombs are now visible in all their glory.

The two portal stones of the smaller tomb in front are visible sticking up just below the moon.

Looking north-easterly. The brambles were still covering most of the near portal stone but luckily they were of the type that when stamped down, stay down.

The brambles have remained pretty much at bay since last year.

The entrance to Dowth’s southern chamber.

20/12/06, ~ 9am

Ballynoe Stone Circle, late afternoon 31/12/2006. Last New Year’s eve I came here in the drizzle and gloom, this year was swinging between black clouds, rain and sunshine, this was in a sunny interval. The wind was so severe I couldn’t see through the viewfinder with the tears streaming from my eyes and had to take 11 exposures to get a sharp one, even using a tripod!

A frosty winter morning 23/12/06

Newgrange in the hazy evening mist seen from Dowth at sunset 21st December 2006.

Concentric circles from the right hand side of the passage

Sunrise on 20th December 2006

The morning sun behind Great Circle Stone 1, December 21st 2006.

Watching the sun setting on the winter solstice eve 2006, on top of Dowth.

Winter Solstice eve 2006, With a very long lens you can see straight down the passage to where the light enters the chamber, at the centre of the photo.

The light entering through the door ends further up the passage as can be seen in the photo, the long lens tightly compresses the length of the passage.

Sunset looking through the portals over the recumbent, 20th December 2006. A light cloud cover blocked direct sunlight through the notch in the centre but with the camera stopped all the way past F22 and with two ND filters on, I was able to observe the disc of the sun moving along the horizon and down through the notch.

Getting intimate with the stars, circles of confusion to the right.

Someone call the stile council... This used to be the access point to the tomb, now barbed wired over and trampled into the mud.

A charmingly imperfect set of concentric circles around a central tiny cup mark, the only visible carving on this chamber orthostat.

I think its the actual contours of moss that you can see showing up here and not the fine detail of the carving itself

Diamonds in the rough.. Moss is gradually claiming all the stunning carving work inside the chamber.

Thar’s gold in them thar crevices! More (better) pics to follow.

A pic I forgot I had of that carving inside the passage

The front entrance and the entrance stone with that insanely fantastic carving work.

Detail of the two large spirals on kerbstone 67, lit by flash.

Some nice carving work on this stone.

September 2005

Shhhhhhh.. The Hag is sleeping!


Labbacalle (The Hag’s Bed) 28/11/06

The ‘Hags Chair’. Under all that graffiti there’s some great but very weathered rock art, some concentric circles and a possible spiral are visible as well as a huge amount of tiny cup marks and pecked patterns. See: carrowkeel.com/sites/loughcrew/loughcrew1.html for a guide to the carvings, transcribed in potatoshop.

The full size image shows up a lot more.