Monthly Archives: June 2023

Lens-Artists Challenge #254 – Spiritual Sites

28 Replies

At the beginning of June, my family and I climbed Croagh Patrick, here in County Mayo, Ireland, as part of a fund-raiser to raise money for our local community park. Over 80 people from our community climbed the 764 m mountain. Croagh Patrick has long been seen as a spiritual place for Irish people.

Chapel on the summit of Croagh Patrick

Saint Patrick, the saint who brought Christianity to Ireland, is supposed to have climbed the mountain, and spent 40 days fasting there. Today, thousands of people climb it every year – some in bare feet, some on pilgrimage, and some just for the challenge.

Inside the chapel

Prior to Christianity, it was a sacred place to our ancestors. It was a place the Celts came to celebrate the Celtic sun god, Lugh, and it is thought that over 3,000 years our Neolithic ancestors may also have climbed it.

View part of the way up – looking over Clew Bay

I find my peace in nature. And you can see why people would have climbed this mountain, for the views it affords from all around, of the beautiful bay, mountains and farmland.

View from summit

It stands out in the landscape with it’s distinctive shape and you can imagine how people would have wanted to climb to the top.

Many thanks to Tina for this week’s Challenge.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #252 and #253 – What’s Bugging you and Fragments

19 Replies

Time is not on my side these days so joining the last two LAPCs together. So what is bugging me – well it is the fragmentation of habitats, which is having a huge impact on our biodiversity.

These dune and machair systems used to be open commonage shared by many farmers, Now they are fragmented into strips.

I know I have written before here about Ireland’s rarest bumblebee. This is the great yellow bumble bee. A bee that loves wildflowers and big spaces with wildflowers.

Great Yellow Bumblebee

It used to feed in hayfields, which were cut late in the year and therefore were flower rich. Now in the countryside farmers generally grow rye grass for silage which is cut from May onwards, and supports few wildflowers. On the Mullet Peninsula in the west of Ireland, species rich coastal grasslands (as shown in the first photograph) is traditionally used for winter grazing and is rich in flowers and that is where the bees are still found today. Isolated now on the western fringes of Ireland.

Even here the habitat is becoming fragmented as some farmers choose to graze through the summer months, leaving little food for pollinators.

Summer grazing

Nature conservation projects are currently working with farmers to help protect these precious habitats.

Species rich grassland perfect for pollinators

Lens-Artists Challenge #251 – Buildings and Other Structures

19 Replies

I don’t take too many photographs of buildings, unless they are old. However, I have recently returned from a lovely trip to Norfolk in the UK, where I spent a lovely time with some dear friends. We lived in Norfolk for a few years in the early 2000’s and hadn’t been back since.

I had forgotten how lovely their buildings are – barns, houses and churches using red / orange / cream clay bricks and flint.

Along the coast near Blakeney, this lovely, old restored wooden life boat station.

And along the coast at Hunstanton these coastal groynes (a structure to trap sediment as part of their coastal sea defences against erosion).

Many thanks to Anne for this week’s LAP challenge