Category Archives: Landscapes

Beautiful Ulster, Co.Londonderry, Ireland, Landscapes, Travel

Ornate Gate!

The Ornate Gate

This old brick gateway at Ballyhome, Coleraine has attracted me for years – I pass it quite often on the way to our family holiday home at Portrush, and I’ve always wanted to point a lens at it – but up until last week I never had opportunity, for one reason or another…

…Until ask week, when Janette and me were driving back from Bushmills, and I determined to stop and make a few images – in between the passing cars on the road down into Coleraine!

I don’t know who owns it or where the path leads, but it’s a striking entrance for whatever property!

Photographed on the Fujifilm X-T4, F=50mm, f/5.6 @ 1/125th sec on ISO800.

Beautiful Ulster, Co. Down, Ireland, Landscapes, Travel

Strangford, Co.Down

When it come to scenery, there’s few places better than Strangford and Lecale, – an area of outstanding natural beauty, and of great scientific interest.

On Thursday 7th January I crossed the straits between Portaferry and Strangford on the ferry, with my Fujifilm X-T4. It was a cold, bright winter day, and Strangford village was sparkling in the winter sunlight.

Fujifilm X-T4, F=95mm, f/6.4 @ 1/250th sec on ISO 400

Beautiful Ulster, Co. Down, History, Ireland, Landscapes, Travel

Shrigley, Van Morrison and that Clock!

The Martin Memorial Clock Tower – beloved monument or ‘a decrepit eyesore?’

Back in September, 2020, Janette and I did a drive around the Lecale District, an area of outstanding natural beauty, not too far from where we live in Co.Down.  I did three blog posts about that area, and in the first of those pieces, https://bobmcevoy.co.uk/2020/09/01/the-lecale-district-1/ I mentioned Van Morrison’s song, “Coney Island.” (Is it really a song?), in which Mr Morrison, one of our native sons, mentions many of the local places of interest in this part of Northen Ireland.  But one of the lines of the song intrigued me.  For Mr Morrison writes of driving through Shrigley to take photographs before he travelled on down to Killyleagh.

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Beautiful Ulster, Co. Down, Ireland, Landscapes, Travel

Dark Mournes – Murlough Bay

Shooting into the Sun!

Shooting into the midday sun is never a great idea but the waves and the dark Mournes were irresistible today.

The image was captured today on Murlough Beach, a National Trust property, between Dundrum and Newcastle, Co.Down. The tallest peak is Slieve Donard, part of the Mourne Mountains range.

Shot on the Fujifilm X-T4, F=30mm f/20 @ 1/125th sec on ISO160.

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Beautiful Ulster, Co. Down, History, Ireland, Landscapes, Travel

Drumbo Round Tower

Between Carryduff and Lisburn, with views across Belfast and the Lagan Valley lies the hamlet of Drumbo, with its historic Round Tower, now situated the graveyard of the Drumbo Presbyterian Church.

Drumdo Round Tower, Fujifilm X-T30, F=24mm, f/13 @ 1/200th sec on ISO500

The tower is one of the oldest monastic monuments in Ireland, dating from around the early medieval period. It was around in AD1130 when records show that it was plundered by one Connor McLochlin.

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Beautiful Ulster, Co. Down, History, Ireland, Landscapes

Kilwarlin and the Battle of Thermopylae

Kilwarlin Moravian Church and Thermopylae in Co. Down!

Kilwarlin Moravian Church was founded by John Cennick (He of Gracehill, Ballymena fame) in 1755. 

Click to see post about Gracehill

Kilwarlin is described on some internet sites as a ‘small village near Hillsborough, Co.Down’. The truth is that it is scarcely that, rather a ribbon development of homes along a very narrow country road, not wide enough for two vehicles to pass, and accessible only with great care.

Kilwarlin_11

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