Holiday Photos

[azvolrien]

For once, I'm actually going to put a real entry in here. However, it will basically be me showing you all my holiday photos.


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This was the first picture I took on holiday. It's some sort of ridge, near Killarney.

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This was the view I was greeted with every morning, except on the days it was kind of foggy.

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A little town called Portmagee, taken from the Skelligs Experience on Valentia Island. Later we took a boat out to the Skelligs from there, which I shall elaborate on later.

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This ferry goes to Valentia, but we took the road bridge.

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This stone was the site of an altazamuth used to calculate the European Arc of Longtitude. What is an altazamuth? I have no idea, but it's a very nice word.

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Coupla more pictures taken from the north end of Valentia.

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Then we went to the south end, and went on a long walk out to Bray Head to investigate a little building I'd spotted. In this way the walk was unsuccessful, but it was worth it anyway because the views were fantastic.

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The Skelligs, seen from Bray Head.

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We took a wrong turn when trying to drive to Kenmare, and ended up driving along a rather precipitous road ending at a dead end on a headland. I did take this photo, though, so it wasn't a complete waste.

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We visited Staigues Stone Fort, which is an Iron Age fort out on a hill. It was in remarkably good condition, for all that everyone had been completely ignoring that little sign.

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All of these were taken from a little viewpoint we stopped at on the way back from Staigues.

And we're on to the Skelligs pictures!
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This one is of Valentia Island, taken from the boat. Most of the boats to the Skelligs leave from Portmagee. We went with a group called Roddy Boats. The guy who owns it (Joe Roddy) was piloting the boat, and according to a little newspaper clipping he passed round he was one of the first surfers, having made his own board when he was fourteen. Until now I had never heard 'Roddy' as a surname.

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Skellig Michael from the boat.
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And again, a little closer.

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Little Skellig, the smaller of the Skelligs. Unlike Skellig Michael, it has always been uninhabited, unless you count a few thousand gannets.

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I can't remember if I took this from the boat or not, but it's looking up at Skellig Michael.

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Two pictures of Little Skellig taken from the monastery at the top of Skellig Michael, one of which has part of a wall in it.

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A seagull. Possibly a kittiwake.

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A couple of photos looking down from the steps. There were no handrails and the steps were very uneven. :D

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Part of Skellig Michael, taken from a spot where many people had stopped to have lunch.

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Just a weird rock and a couple of tourists.

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This one was either taken from the boat or the jetty it landed at. Either way, it's kind of forbidding.

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Looking back at Skellig Michael as we left on the boat.

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Several picture of Little Skellig, including a couple which also include a Belgian guy who was also on the boat.

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If you ever wanted to see how the sails on a windmill connect to the machinery inside, now's your chance. This was a bloody massive gear at the top of Blennerville Windmill, a restored but fully working windmill near Tralee.

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The outside of the windmill.

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A heron.

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This is a little chocolate Ireland that I bought. I ate it shortly after taking this photo.

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We took a little road in the hope that it would lead us around Lough Currane. It didn't, but I saw some very impressive scenery which, if I had to choose one word to describe, I would call 'stark'.
Hey, those sheep look like one sheep with two heads.

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Having failed to find a way around Lough Currane, we turned back and I took this photo.

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We discovered a fortified farmstead called Loher Stone Fort, which was actually in better condition than Staigues but wasn't as big.

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And this is Ladies' View. There was a cafe there, but we didn't go in. Just stopped, took some photos, and drove off again.

And we're done.