Seine Boat Regattas in South Kerry

This year´s regatta season is almost finished with the Portmagee Regatta taking place next Sunday.
It seems to me we are having the worst summer in a long time and indeed some regattas had to be postponed which I cannot remember happening in the last years.
Looking through some of my "proper" panorama photos, taken with a panorama camera and roll film, I came across a few regatta pictures from a few years back. Is it the black and white film or was the sun not shining that day also?
Well, I am looking forward to a few days in the heat of the south of France...

Birds

During a Youth Angling Competition in Caherciveen, Co. Kerry, for which I was asked to take photographs, there was this fierce battle for the fish near our boat.







If you are in South Kerry and you fancy some angling trip or any other activity,
check out
Active Holidays Kerry or go to their office in The Marina, Caherciveen.

The Skelligs, Nature Photography

The third publication in my photographic trilogy about the Skelligs and Skellig Michael in particular can be seen here,

Open publication - Free publishing - More skelligs

If you want to see all three of them, one is about The monastic buildings on Skellig Michael and the second about The lighthouses either click the titles or on my publications in the links section.

The old Abbey in Ballinskelligs, Co. Kerry

Ballinskelligs Abbey was founded as a Priory of the Arroasian Canons of the Order of St. Augustine in 1210 A.D.
There had been a strong movement in Irish monasteries since the 6th century, a lot of them in outflung places like Skellig Michael, where the monks lived as hermits or in small groups to worship Christ under extreme conditions.
Eventually bigger and more centrally situated places were founded to suit the needs of a wider community not only to take part in contemplative religious activities but also in education and charity.
Between the 13th and the 15th century a number of buildings were added to the priory, sadly they were soon to fall in disrepair when because of the Reformation and the English rule many monasteries and abbeys were closed and the land was granted to loyal servants of the new powers from 1578.
The close proximity of the sea also played its part in destruction and erosion of the buildings, as there were a Church with nave, chancel and a tower; the two storey Prior´s House, a Refectory connected to the church by a cloister and other smaller buildings.
Still, burials took part within and between the ruins until quite recently.
Today the Office of Public Works is doing some conservation work to stop an ongoing erosion and to preserve this important heritage site in south Kerry.

Skellig Michael - The Lighthouses

When I was staying on Skellig Michael
in April I used almost every minute of light
to capture the awesome monastic buildings
but also the architecture of the two lighthouses
and of course, you cannot escape it,
thunderous waves, the fast moving clouds
or calm sky and other nature performances.
I showed some of the lighthouse photographs
here before and there are some more now
in this publication.

Open publication - Free publishing - More skelligs

Only a few informations here ,
you can read a lot more on the Commissioners of Irish Lights website.

The construction of the two lighthouses began in 1821 and five years later was completed.
The service of the upper lighthouse which is in ruins now was discontinued in 1870, it was not very reliable anyway because it seemed to be in a cloud a lot of the time and by 1870 a light house on Inishtearaght, one of the Blasket Islands, covered the necessary area for which the Skelligs Upper Light was meant.
There is one photograph of a grave stone within the church of the monastery.
Two children of one lighthouse keeper are buried here, Patrick, aged 2 who died in December 1868 and William, aged 4 who died in March 1869.

The Early Christian Monastery on Skellig Michael

From the 6th up to the 13th century Christian hermits and monks built a small monastery on a most remote, but precious and inspiring rocky island out in the Atlantic off the coast of South Kerry.
They were seeking spiritual freedom away from all worldly concerns and found it on this platform between the roaring sea, some bizarre rocks and the ever changing sky.
When I was allowed to stay on Skellig Michael this past April for three nights I was very excited and tried to use every minute of sunlight during the days to take pictures.
Some of them are published here:

Open publication - Free publishing - More world heritage

More about South Kerry´s heritage here...