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Images from the top of “The Reek” “Croagh Patrick”

Croagh Patrick
The Reek
County Mayo
Nigel Borrington 2018

This time last week during a weeks holiday to both counties Sligo and Mayo, in the norths west of Ireland, we hiked up Croagh Patrick or “The reek” as locals know of it. This mountain is one of Irelands Highest peeks and is most famous for being climbed by pilgrims on Reek Sunday every year, which is the last Sunday of each July. On this Sunday, thousands of pilgrims climb Croagh Patrick in honor of Saint Patrick who, according to tradition, fasted and prayed on the summit for forty days in the year 441.

It has been a personal aim to walk the peeks of a list of mountains in Ireland for a couple of years and “The Reek” is just one of these mountains to hike in the next couple of years.

The weather on the day was perfect and we started our walk about Midday having driven some 80km to the main car park used to start the hike. The start of the walk is good, being flat for a while and then only slowly rising in level, so you get a little time to warmup before the main slopes higher up the mountain side. Once you hike the first slopes the path levels off for a while until you come to the bottom of the main peek.

I really enjoyed this hike, its hard – no getting away from that fact but when you do finally get to the top the views are amazing, you can see most of county Mayo and well into county Sligo from here. there is a step that surrounds a small chapel that you can sit on to eat and have something to drink. We rested here for about 10 mins before walking around the top of the peek.

As you can see these images below are mostly taken at the top, when I finally go to open my bag and get my camera out. As I said you truly feel on top of the world here, this point is some 764 metres (2,507 ft) above sea level, not the highest mountain in the country by about 250 meters but here you start your walk at sea level so it could well be the highest distance you have to walk to get to the top…..

I will let these images do the rest of the talking for me other than to say , this is one of the most enjoyable walks of my life and I cannot wait to walk more Irish mountains in the months yo come ..

The Reek Wiki page


Croagh Patrick, County Mayo, A gallery

Posted by  |  September 6, 2018 | Categories: Gallery, images of ireland, Irish Landscapes, Mountains, Nigel Borrington, photography, Places to visit, Travel Locations | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Irish Landscapes – Suir Valley, County Tipperary, call of the far away hills

Call of the far away hills
Suir Valley
county Tipperary
Nigel Borrington 2018

Shadows fall on the Valley
Day is done and the sun
Is slowly fading out of sight
I can hear, oh, so clear
A call that echoes in the night
Yes, I hear sweet and clear
The call of the faraway hills

There’s no rest on the Valley
There’s no rest for a restless soul
That just was born to roam
Who can say, maybe way out there
My heart may find a home
And I hear sweet and clear
The call of the faraway hills

There are trails I’ve never seen
And my dreams are getting old
And beyond the sunset
There are brand new paths
When a new dream or two
May just be one star away

I must obey the call of the faraway hills

Posted by  |  September 5, 2018 | Categories: Gallery, Images of Autumn, images of ireland, Irish Landscapes, Mountains, Poetry Gallery, Solo images, Travel Locations | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Images of September, The Woodcock butterfly

Images of September
Woodcock Butterfly
County Kilkenny
Ireland
Nikon D700
Nigel Borrington

Posted by  |  September 4, 2018 | Categories: Gallery, Images of Autumn, irish woodlands, kilkenny photography, Nature, Nature and Wildlife | Tags: , , , , , | 1 Comment

William Butler Yeats country, Those Images A poem

Those Images – Poem by William Butler Yeats

What if I bade you leave
The cavern of the mind?

There’s better exercise
In the sunlight and wind.

I never bade you go
To Moscow or to Rome.

Renounce that drudgery,
Call the Muses home.

Seek those images
That constitute the wild,
The lion and the virgin,
The harlot and the child.

Find in middle air
An eagle on the wing,
Recognise the five
That make the Muses sing.

William Butler Yeats

Posted by  |  September 4, 2018 | Categories: Gallery, Irish Landscapes, Landscape, Mountains, Nigel Borrington, nowness, Poetry Gallery | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

On the Road past Lough Nafooey, Finny, Clonbur, county Galway

Posted by  |  September 3, 2018 | Categories: Gallery, images of ireland, Irish Landscapes, Irish rivers, Landscape, Mountains, Travel Locations | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Land of Beyond, Robert Service

The Land of Beyond
Robert Service

Have you ever heard of the Land of Beyond,
That dream at the gates of the day?
Alluring it lies at the skirts of the skies,
And ever so far away;
Alluring it calls: O ye yoke of galls,
And ye of the trails overfond,
With saddle and pack, by paddle and track,
Let’s go to the Land of Beyond!

Have ever you stood where the silences brood,
And vast the horizons begin,
At the dawn of the day to behold far away
The goal you would strive for and win?
Yet ah! in the night when you gain to the height,
With the vast pool of heaven star-spawned,
Afar and agleam, like a valley of dream,
Still mocks you the Land of Beyond.

Thank God! there is always the Land of Beyond
For us who are true to the trail;
A vision to seek, a beckoning peak,
A fairness that never will fail;
A proud in our soul that mocks at a goal,
A manhood that irks at a bond,
And try how we will, unattainable still,
Behold it, our Land of Beyond!

Posted by  |  August 23, 2018 | Categories: Gallery, Images of Summer, Irish Landscapes, Landscape, Mountains, Poetry Gallery | Tags: , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Irish landscapes, Curracloe beach,county wexford

Irish Landscapes
Curracloe Beach
County Wexford
Nigel Borrington

Curracloe Beach in County Wexford is one of the most popular beaches in Ireland. Located 2KM away from Curracloe Village, this soft-sand beach is frequented by sunbathers and nature-lovers alike.

During the summer months, you’ll find that the area is bustling with life, as holidaymakers leave their home counties to take up residence in the holiday homes, campsites, hotels and B&Bs that surround the area. Later on, during the autumn and winter months, Curracloe Beach and its nearby forest become a hot spot for dog-walkers, joggers and anyone else in pursuit of a peaceful stroll.

The area itself is suitable for bathing, as it has a Blue Flag certification. This certification, which is awarded by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), serves as a notice to beach-goers that the area and its surrounding waters have lived up to a number of strict regulatory standards.

Its 7-mile-long beach is famous for its soft and fine sand, which puts it in contrast with many of the stony beaches that you will find around Ireland. The beach is guarded by a number of large and sprawling dunes, all of which are held together and stabilised by a seemingly-endless blanket of green marram grass. During the warmer months, these sand dunes prove to be extremely popular amongst visitors, many of whom will not pass up the opportunity to roll down them.

Curracloe Strand, Ballinesker, was used for the filming of the D-Day sequence in Saving Private Ryan, due to similarity to Omaha Beach in Normandy. Filming began June 27, 1997, and lasted for two months. The village of Curracloe lacked 3-phase electricity but when the film company decided to film there, it was connected.

Curracloe Strand was also used for the Irish beach scene in the movie Brooklyn.

Posted by  |  August 21, 2018 | Categories: Gallery, Irish coastline, Irish Landscapes, Landscape | Tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments

Monday at the River Suir, The Heron ……

River Birds – Heron
River Suir
Country Tipperary
Nigel Borrington 2018

Posted by  |  August 20, 2018 | Categories: Gallery, Irish rivers, Nature and Wildlife, Nature photography, Nigel Borrington | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Poem for August : In August – Poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar

A Poem for those Augusts when it doesn’t rain …..

In August – Poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar

When August days are hot an’ dry,
When burning copper is the sky,
I ‘d rather fish than feast or fly
In airy realms serene and high.

I ‘d take a suit not made for looks,
Some easily digested books,
Some flies, some lines, some bait, some hooks,
Then would I seek the bays and brooks.

I would eschew mine every task,
In Nature’s smiles my soul should bask,
And I methinks no more could ask,
Except–perhaps–one little flask.

In case of accident, you know,
Or should the wind come on to blow,
Or I be chilled or capsized, so,
A flask would be the only go.

Then could I spend a happy time,–
A bit of sport, a bit of rhyme
(A bit of lemon, or of lime,
To make my bottle’s contents prime).

When August days are hot an’ dry,
I won’t sit by an’ sigh or die,
I ‘ll get my bottle (on the sly)
And go ahead, and fish, and lie!
In August
Paul Laurence Dunbar

Posted by  |  August 17, 2018 | Categories: Gallery, Images of Summer, Irish Boglands, Irish Landscapes, Landscape, Mountains, Poetry Gallery | Tags: , , , , , | 1 Comment

A Poem for August : Dark August – Poem by Derek Walcott

A poem for those Augusts when it does rain ! ……..

Dark August – Poem by Derek Walcott

So much rain, so much life like the swollen sky
of this black August. My sister, the sun,
broods in her yellow room and won’t come out.

Everything goes to hell; the mountains fume
like a kettle, rivers overrun; still,
she will not rise and turn off the rain.

She is in her room, fondling old things,
my poems, turning her album. Even if thunder falls
like a crash of plates from the sky,

she does not come out.
Don’t you know I love you but am hopeless
at fixing the rain ? But I am learning slowly

to love the dark days, the steaming hills,
the air with gossiping mosquitoes,
and to sip the medicine of bitterness,

so that when you emerge, my sister,
parting the beads of the rain,
with your forehead of flowers and eyes of forgiveness,

all with not be as it was, but it will be true
(you see they will not let me love
as I want), because, my sister, then

I would have learnt to love black days like bright ones,
The black rain, the white hills, when once
I loved only my happiness and you.

An August Midnight
Thomas Hardy

Posted by  |  August 16, 2018 | Categories: Gallery, images of ireland, Irish Landscapes, Poetry Gallery | Tags: , , , , , | 1 Comment