Saltee Islands – treasure bigger than money -part 1

“All people young and old, are welcome to come, see and enjoy the islands, and leave them as they found them for the unborn generations to come see and enjoy.” – Michael the First

Even after I shared two posts on my Saltee experiences I still have a lot to say. I love this place.

When we arrived to Kilmore Quay to catch our motor boat, the sea looked rough. In the days of sail, the area around the Islands was known as “the graveyard of a thousand ships”. I cannot tell that I have a brilliant memory, but this sort of information somehow always gets stuck in my head.

We boarded our boats – twelve in each – and off we went. Not wanting to get soaked in salty wate, I went inside the boat, and it was a grave mistake. The waves were rolling over the boat; a few times the wave hit the bottom of the boat so hard that I though it would break up in pieces. Half way to the island, fighting sea sickness I had to get out, and there I stood another 15 minutes all soaked but unable even to move to make myself comfortable. I barely remember the short trip on the inflatable boat; I was focused on staying conscious. It took me some six hours to completely recover – right before our trip back.

We walked up the steps, passed by the owners’ house and headed to the Puffin place. The island was wrapped in fog.

The cliffs surrounding the first bay near the cave known as the Wherry Hole are the nesting place for Atlantic Puffins.

I am very glad to tell you that there were remarkably more puffins this year than the year before. Knowing that the birds return to their old burrows, I went to check out my buddy who made such a great model for me last year, and there he was – with some more neighbours, possibly his own grown up chicks from the previous years.

Puffins start breeding when they are five years old. They use their pre-breeding years to learn about feeding places, choosing a mate and nest sites.

I went around for some more shots. The fun will start in the afternoon when the puffins go fishing and return with the bunches of the Sand eels in their beaks.

During winter, the beaks and feet of puffins fade in color, and every spring they turn bright orange again in preparation for the breeding season. The beak increases in size as the bird matures.

Here you can listen to a puffin – you will love it 🙂 Puffins usually make noises when sitting in their burrows, and the acoustics are very impressive. I will post the link separately to give a credit to ProjectPuffin : http://projectpuffin.audubon.org/sites/default/files/audio/atpu.wav

In this photograph you can see two cameras set up by the Ornithologists to watch the puffins.

We came a couple of weeks too early: most of the puffins young haven’t hatched yet, but still we got lucky to see some feeding birds that afternoon.

The puffin’s beak can hold up to 60 fish. The raspy tongue holds fish against spines on the palate allowing the puffin to open his beak to catch more fish.

We were lucky with the weather also. It was a dry day, a little bit overcast. It is difficult to take photographs of puffins in the sun because of their black and white plumage.

A few more puffins. The couples stay together all their life. Males are usually slightly larger than females, otherwise there is no difference.

This family is still working on their nest. Puffins lay one egg per year.

Puffins are very clumsy on the ground and in the flight. They are rather falling than landing, with a thud. In this photograph you can see some spots around the puffin. You might think it is some dirt on my lens, but it is the sand in the air. When a puffin is taking off he beats his wings and lifts up all the dust and sand.

A puffin can fly 48 to 55 mph (77 to 88 km/hr) though. The wings can move so fast that they become a blur.

Great Saltee Island is some 2-3 km long. I am leaving the Puffins’ place and start hiking to the Southern part of the island along the well-trodden path.

The islands were used as a base for pirates and smugglers for centuries. The gain of these folks could very well be hidden in the many caves, like the one in the image above, but there are treasures bigger than money, and they are not hidden anywhere.

More from the Saltees in the end of the week. Hope you loved the puffins.

Have a peaceful week!

Golden faces, silver eyes and blue eyelids

And this is another old post from my last year’s trip to Saltee Island. It is a beautiful place, a haven for those looking to escape the big city for a day, for the birdwatchers and photographers. Hope you enjoy this post and the trip to the Gannet kingdom.

Making memories

It started raining. Creeping from one rock to another I was finally done with photographing the puffins willing to pose.

I looked around and saw that my peeps took off and started to disappear one by one in the sea of ferns. So I hurried after them.

Our next destination was Gannet Headland, a nesting ground for the Northern gannets. You cannot see the place before you climb up to the highest point of the island through the high ferns and then walk down to the rugged cliffs. Then you just stop there, speechless.

The gannet is Europe’s largest sea bird with a wingspan up to 2 metres. The adults are white and the young birds are very dark brown. It takes 5 years for them to reach maturity and start breeding. They say there are two thousand couples nesting there on the island. The gannets make their nests from seaweeds…

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Saltee Islands, a place where birds rule

I have been to Saltee Island again. I thought I would re-blog my two old posts before I share some new photographs with you. Never too many puffins for me 🙂 Hope you enjoy the trip!

Making memories

Our Camera Club had an outing to Great Saltee island for bird photography. Before the trip I did a research as I always do, which helps me not miss anything important and regret it afterwards. There is a website with beautiful photographs where you can learn more about the owners of the Islands. I don’t know if anybody ever met them when visiting Great Saltee, but I am sure they are wonderful and hospitable people. They have a shelter behind their home: a kitchen packed with bottled water and basic utensils for those who might get stuck on the island because of the weather, and two beds upstairs. We used the shelter while waiting for the boat to pick us up: the rain shortened our visit by two hours…

If you plan this trip you might find useful the Trip Advisor comments and Captain Declan Bates’ telephone number to arrange the boat and…

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Meet the Past: Dolmens and Fairy Raths

The past and the present in rural Ireland are balanced and closely tied up together. I want to share some photographs of ancient things taken in different years and seasons, and thank the thoughtful farmers who are the guardians and protectors of the balance.

There are about 190 dolmens in Ireland. Dolmens have an entrance – the portal. Another name for dolmens is Portal tomb, because most of them are associated with graves.

The most visited dolmen is Poulnabrone portal dolmen – a fine megalithic monument in the Burren, Co Clare .

The site was excavated in 1980, and the bones of 21 people – 16 adults and 5 children – were found. The bones were dated from 3800-3200 BC. There were also many other finds like stone tools, arrow heads, beads and even the head of a bone pin.

The natural limestone formations in the Burren are called grykes and clints ( you see them in the image below)

The magnificent Proleek dolmen is also known as the Giant’s Load. It is situated in Co Louth near Dundalk, in the grounds of Ballymascanlon Hotel.

The dolmen is about 3 m high and has a round capstone weighing approximately 35 tons. Legend says that a wish will be granted to anyone who can throw a pebble on its capstone so that it stays there.

Another impressive megalithic structure is Knockeen dolmen located near Tramore, Co Waterford.

The dolmen is about 3 m high, and has two enormous capstones.

Next to the dolmen is an old graveyard, quite overgrown. This is what it looks like in the end of December…

A few minutes drive from Knockeen dolmen, there is another amazing megalith – Gaulstown dolmen. If you are interested, here is a Tramore area Dolmen map, but you have to know that some of the dolmens cannot be seen from the road.

This is one of the dolmens that is accessible a whole year. Kilmogue dolmen, or Harristown dolmen, or Leac an Scail, is Ireland’s tallest dolmen at almost 5 meters or 15 feet from the ground to the tip of the capstone. It is situated near Templeorum, Co Kilkenny.

Another fascinating structure is a Fairy rath.

There are about 50.000 Fairy raths, or Fairy forts in Ireland – the remains of the Bronze Age – Iron Age circular dwellings. It is what the archeologists say. The ancient books say that the raths are the portals to the magical world of the Tuatha Dé Danann little people, the fairies.

As you see, the trees grow only on the edges of the circular wall and the central section. Why? No one knows.

The ditch, or moat, is very deep, and there is no growth. Who can explain this?

No one in their sound mind would cut a tree or even break a branch from a rath. Most of people believe that if they do so, they would be followed by bad luck. Here you can read what happens when you don’t respect the fairies.

The Fairy raths were used as burial grounds for the babies who died before they could be baptized, and had thus been denied a burial in the Church grounds. If the Catholic God would not accept the little ones, the ancient Gods would accept them. Babies buried in raths were thought to be protected by the fairies.

Thank you for taking a trip to the ancient places with me! Hope you enjoyed the reading.
Have a great week!

Great Height of Ardmore, Co Waterford

Last week I visited with a friend in Ardmore – a little village in Co Waterford. We ate ice cream, watched the tide, and talked to strangers. I took a few pictures, added a few more from my previous visits, and made up this post.

On my very first visit to Ardmore a good few years ago I was puzzled watching the crowd that surrounded a boulder resting on the seabed after the tide went out.

It didn’t look different from the other rocks , so I didn’t investigate any further and headed up to the cliff walk trail. On the way back the boulder was already covered in water, so I let it go at that.

Only years after I learned that there was a story.

In the 5th century Declan of Ardmore, an early Irish saint of the Deisi Muman ( Vassals of Munster) and the founder of Ardmore Monastery travelled to Rome to be consecrated as Bishop. Declan received a gift from heaven while celebrating the Eucharist – a golden bell. A monk Runanus travelling with Declan from Wales to Ireland forgot to take the sacred bell and Declan was very upset. Yet, his prayers for the bell’s safety were answered and a boulder carrying his bell miraculously floated upon the waves all the way from Wales and finally stopped on the shore where Declan founded his church and a monastery – in the place called Aird Mhor – Great Height.

During the Declan Pattern, which is observed on the feast day of the saint (July 24), pilgrims crawl under the boulder (which is resting on two smaller stones) as a cure for arthritis.

St. Declan’s Way is a pilgrim route that begins in Ardmore and ends in Cashel in County Tipperary. It is 56 miles in length and crosses the Knockmealdown Mountains via a high 1,762 foot pass.

Great Height is a right name for the area. A beautiful cliff walk trail around Ram Head takes you high over the sea, and it begins from the ruins of St. Declan’s Church and Holy Well. The well served as a Baptistry to the early Christian missionaries, while the church served as St. Declan’s hermitage.

The Well has two entrances. There used to be three crosses on the top of it: the cross on the left representing the unrepentant thief, the central cross representing Christ and the cross on the right representing the repentant thief. The cross from the left side is gone: either stolen by some unrepentant thief, or it had broken off and rolled down to the sea.

The first cross is the one from the church, the second – the middle one from the well. They are dated back to the 5th century.

There are many other interesting things and places along the trail.

The Watchtower was built in 1800 as a part of the Napoleonic defenses built along the coast of Ireland.

A wreck of a crane ship – the Samson – that was blown ashore in 1978.

Fr. O’Donnell’s Well was built in 1928 and named after Fr O’Donnell who used to come there and read.

St. Declan founded a monastery in Ardmore prior to the arrival of St. Patrick in Ireland, (between 350 and 450 A.D.) The original monastery does not exist anymore, but the ruins of the cathedral that was built over the monastery site are well preserved and located on the hill overlooking the sea. It has features dating from as early as the 9th Century.

The remnants of St. Declans Oratory and an old cemetery are also located here. St. Declan’s Oratory is the oldest building in the graveyard near the Cathedral. It is believed that the grave of St. Declan is located within the building.

Some of the gravestones have been worn down and look like old teeth protruding from the ground.

The round tower at Ardmore was built in the 12th Century and raises at the height of 97 feet. The entrance doorway is about 13 feet from the ground, making the tower a safe place for the monks.

Some graves bear a more modern look.

Ardmore is not only a monastic place. This building is a lot of fun – it is not real, the same as the donkey.

The doors and the windows are painted on the wall.

There are many towns in the USA named Ardmore, but an American novelist Nora Roberts has made Ardmore, Co Waterford the location for her ” Gallaghers of Ardmore” trilogy: Jewels of the Sun, Tears of the Moon and Heart of the Sea.

Hope you like this tour around Ardmore.