Inistioge & Woodstock Gardens

Woodstock Gardens

The Dovecote in Woodstock gardens

13th century Doorway in Inistioge Abbey

The remains of Inistioge Abbey

The town tower house castle in Inistioge Town

Its a nice little too, well worth a visit!

Spent a cold winters day out in the lovely 18th/19th century Woodstock gardens before having a short wonder around the pretty village of Inistioge nearby with its medieval bits and pieces, lovely town, well worth a visit. 

Lismore & Around with Sceitse

Lismore town centre

McGraths tomb in Lismore cathedral, a 16th century tomb

The oldest part of the Lismore castle, its 16th century gates

Lismore castle from its gardens

One of the Ballysaggartmore gates within the woods

The second of the gates, hidden within these woods a few miles from Lismore

Heading out in lashing rain myself and the sketch group, Sceitse,  teamed up at Lismore to have a wander around the town, its castle and surrounds, and were rewarded for our efforts by the skies clearing, and as always ,an enjoyable day of fun, laughs and sketching

Abbeystrowry Medieval Church, Liss Ard Estate and its Sky Garden

Abbeystrowry Medeval Church

Entrance to the Sky Gardens at Liss Ard Estate

Sky Garden at Liss Ard estate

Nature showing off at Liss Ard Estate

Just back from a weekend away with the other half to around Skibbereen. Visiting the medieval church in Abbeystrowry graveyard in Skibbereen, Liss Ard estate and its gardens. And the amazing Sky garden, which was built in order to surround your vision as you stare up at the sky,  I love it when modern architecture is so influenced by prehistoric monuments, check out a better view of it here:

http://www.irelands-hidden-gems.com/images/skygardenlissards.jpg

North Cork awandering

Kildorrery Medieval Parish Church

A medieval stoup inside its 15th century limestone entrance

Aghacross medieval church nearby

Inside Athacross church

Mill at Mourneabby

Cloynes medieval parish church and round tower

Some places I visited in north and east Cork recently, mostly visiting medieval sites.

Thurles Sceitse

Holycross Abbey

The amazing windows of Holycross abbey

Even a portion of the True Cross, whether or not you believe in that sort of thing, its beautiful medieval metalwork

Ballynahow castle, one of the few round tower houses in Ireland

A perfectly preserved flagstone floor inside

It was an amazingly intact castle with loads of great features like this mural stairs

One of the two Tower houses in Thurles

Thurles Cathedral, very Italian looking!

The impressive Kilcooley Abbey

The font in Kilcooley Abbey

The intricately detailed Butler Grave

 On Sunday I went sketch exploring around Thurles with sketch group Sceitse (http://sceitse.blogspot.ie/) for a day of great sites and lots of sketching!

Coumshingaun Sceitse

The mountains the surround the cirque/corrie or coum which gives Coumshingaun its name

Walking up to the loch

Galty beg 2

The views were spectacular

The Corrie from above

Wondering in mist

We came out a few kilometres west than we were supposed to  but was more an adventure that way

The verticals we wondered down on the way down

For the 41st Sceitse on Sunday passed, we headed to Coumshinguan, a glacial lake surrounded by jagged mountains in the Comeragh mountains with commanding views of the rolling hills and flats of Western Waterford

More photos on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/jg.odonoghueillustrator/posts/873440032776056?pnref=story

Sketch Snorkeling & Ceann Heilbhic/Helvic Head

Cé Heilbhic/Helvic Quay, its actually Waterford Gaeltacht

The sheltered little cove we did our sketch snorkeling

The sketch snorkelers with our waterproof paper & back boards, a normal wood graphite pencil is all u need ontop

The island we swam out too and climbed, you can see it there in the middle, was quite the journey out to it!

The fun results of our attempt at sketching underwater, mine is the bottom right hand corner

The Slip at Ceann Heilbhic/Helvic Head

An Coinigéar, a narrow peninsula that stretches across Dungarvan Bay

Myself and some other intrepid sketch adventurers, went to Helvic Head over the weekend to see what happens when you combine sketching and snorkeling. The result was alot of fun! After we swam out to the nearby island and sketch snorkeled along the way, we came back and did a scenic drive around Helvic head checking out its piers, village and the narrow peninsula named 'An Coinigéar'

Excavation, Wedge tomb cemeteries and the Cliffs of Moher

One of the many wedge tombs in a very small area

The reason I was up there, the first excavation of a wedge tomb in the Burren ever!

The strange revetment wall surrounding the tomb, which would have been used to hold up the cairn material

The inner wedge tomb, wasnt much left of it, just one of the side stones and the front entrance stone

Outside the tomb they found an inhumation! You can see the bones here

Nearby, the famous Parknabinnia Wedge tomb, another one crossed off the list!

The Cliffs of Moher. Not been here since I was 8!

I was very kindly invited to visit an excavation of a wedge tomb in the Burren by Ros Ó'Maoldúin. Twas an unmissable opportunity to see the excavation of a wedge tomb first hand (the first ever Wedge tomb to excavated in the Burren!). While there he took time out of his busy schedule to show me around the cluster of wedge tombs around it, which can only be described as a Bronze Age wedge tomb cemetery (only in the Burren!). While there myself Ara, the other half, took the chance to pop over and visited the Cliffs of Moher after.