Up in the Mourne Mountains, a small but extremely scenic mountain range in Northern Ireland

      

The lunar landscape of the Mourne Mountains

      

On top of the world (well, kind of)

      

Spelga Dam, a reservoir in the Mournes

      

Lough Shannagh and the Silent Valley Reservoir

      

Starting point

      

View towards the sea

      

The 35km long Mourne Wall, built to enclose the catchment area of the nearby reservoirs (I'm not quite sure how it works though)

      

Local residents

      

Spelga Dam and the surrounding mountains

      

Rugged lands seen from Carn Mountain

      

The Mourne Wall zigzags across the mountains

      

View along the Causeway Coast in Ballintoy Port. Not a bad place for a seaside house.

      

Viewpoint from the coast near the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge

      

View from the top of the Antrim Coast cliffs near Ballintoy

      

Gravestone

      

Graveyard next to Ballintoy's church

      

Ballintoy harbour

      

Love

      

Horses on the Antrim Coast

      

Apparently only a few houses were allowed to be built in this area to prevent it from becoming crowded

      

Stone hut serving as a cafe in Ballintoy harbour

      

People approaching the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge

      

View of the North Channel with Rathlin Island (pop. 75) in the background

      

Wobbly Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge leads to Carrick Island, formerly used by salmon fishermen as it was a prime fishing location (though the bridge they usde was a lot less stable)

      

View from the Antrim Coast towards Rathlin Island (Reachlainn in Gaelic Irish)

      

Rather interesting architecture

      

Beware of the fighting - fictional traffic signs near the studio of the Bogside Artists

      

The firemen of Derry

      

Guinness are famous for the creativity of their ads

      

An offer you can't refuse - Guinness meets the Godfather

      

The mural Operation Motorman by the Bogside Artists, symbolising the way the British Army attacked the territories controlled by the Provisional IRA in 1972

      

I was only joking

      

The colours of Ireland

      

Ode to Claude's (in the loo of Claude's coffee house)

      

The Bogside Artists mural Petrol Bomber - a kid with a gas mask and a petrol bomb during The Troubles (the Irish vs. British conflict)

      

The Petrol Bomber (Bogside Artists)

      

Smile!

      

Colourful terraced housing

      

The road leading to the Giant's Causeway

      

The size of the Causeway is best seen from the surrounding cliffs

      

The causeway's lava formations

      

The hills around the Giant's Causeway

      

The dramatic Causeway Coast

      

These are actually quite comfortable when used as chairs

      

It's quite hard to believe this isn't man-made, but was formed as a result of volcanic activity in the area

      

People exploring the Causeway

      

Family

      

View from the nearby cliffs

      

Cliffside steps

      

Patterns

      

Sunday afternoon

      

Throne

      

The paths around the causeway, as seen from the top of the highest rock formation in the water

      

The colours of Ireland

      

The dome and viewing platform of Victoria Square shopping centre

      

The viewing platform inside the dome of Victoria Square

      

View over Belfast

      

Daily life in Belfast

      

The 17 metre Ring of Thanksgiving sculpture on the bank of the River Lagan

      

Temple Bar (and the pub of the same name), the entertainment district of Dublin

      

Inner Dublin

      

Feel strong

      

Mounted member of the Irish police, the Garda

      

Broken angel

      

On the campus of the Trinity College (officially called simply the Provost, Fellows and Scholars of the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin)

      

Bag City

      

May cause death - bus timetable in Dublin

      

The wall of one of Dublin's most subtle sex shops

      

Not to worry!

      

Booze 2 Go - a pretty straightforward off licence in Parnell Street

      

Locked

      

Freebird Records

      

Sightseeing boat in Dublin

      

While almost everyone speaks English, Irish is used on official signs in an attempt to preserve the language

      

Banner celebrating Sinn Féin ('We Ourselves'), the Irish nationalist political party closely linked to the IRA

      

Skateboarding Prohibited - sign on a hideous (brutalist style?) office building, designed to suck the life out of you anyway

      

Life in Dublin

      

Despite the city's relatively compact size Dublin's streets can be extremely busy

      

Architecture by St Stephen's Green, a public park in South Dublin

      

Dame Street

      

View across the narrow River Liffey

      

The Oliver St John Gogarty pub, named after a surgeon/writer/football player of the same name.

      

Southwest Ireland's weather is among the country's driest, with only about 200 rainy days a year

      

Valeting

      

Locals

      

Graveyard in Glendalough's Monastic City

      

Celtic High Crosses on tombs

      

On the shore of the Upper Lake

      

View from the ridge between peaks Lugduff and Mullacor

      

View from Lugduff

      

The Monastic City with St Kevin's monastery

      

The ruins of St Kevin's Cathedral with tombstones lying flat on the ground

      

817m Tonelagee as seen from the Camaderry ridge

      

What looks like an extremely dry landscape is in fact one giant bog (a type of wetland) hiding under the plants

      

Surreal-looking peat hags at the top of Camaderry

      

The valley of Glendalough

      

This is not a blurry shot - the effect is due to the dense plantation of pines

      

Ominous views over Glendalough's pinewoods

      

Flowers love the wet climate

      

Towards the valley

      

Not really an indigenous species, but it seems to like the place

      

The red hiking route passing by Mullacor mountain

      

10 minutes' rest among the boulders by the Glenealo River - the signposted route ends here, and the bog walk begins

      

The ridge of Camaderry that leads down to the valley of Glendalough

      

Hikers at the footbridge over the Glenealo river leading to the Spink ridge

      

To get a sense of scale: those specks on the sand are people

      

Walking on water sign in the Upper Lake

      

View from the the middle of the peat bogs covering the mountainside of Camaderry

      

Sunny days are a rare thing here, though the county's 200 rainy days a year make it one of the driest areas of Ireland

      

The steep side of the Spink

      

Signature

      

The path to the Monastic City's graveyard

      

There are graves dating from the 18th century

      

The long descent from Camaderry

      

The Upper Lake

      

The Glenealo River as seen from the Spink, a series of cliffs along the Upper Lake

      

View from Camaderry towards the East

      

View from the Camaderry ridge

      

The red water of acidic Glenealo River

      

The Upper Lake

      

From the footpath running around the edge of the Howth Head peninsula

      

Dangerous cliffs sign attacked by German stickers

      

Nie wieder Faschismus - Never again fascism

      

Dog in a sweater at low tide

      

Fishing boats in Howth Harbour

      

Fishing equipment

      

A day by the sea

      

Angling in the Irish Sea

      

Howth Head peninsula as seen from Howth pier

      

Yummy

      

Frutti del mare

      

Looking towards the uninhabited island called Ireland's Eye (Inis Mac Neasáin)

      

Low tide in Howth harbour

      

A nice day

      

Yield right of way - for some reason the standard triangle sign needed explanation here; The island Ireland's Eye is in the background

      

Sunday afternoon on the beach in Portrush

      

Irish bar with the West Strand in the background

      

The port of Portrush

      

Portrush is a seaside resort town (weather permitting)

      

The East Strand of Portrush

      

Two signs apparently targeted at two different audiences

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