Hill of Allen

Thanks to heritage week 2012, the tower on the top of the Hill of Allen is open this week. I was on a day's holidays so took the opportunity to take a wander up, it being a nice day and all. There's a car park at the base of the Hill which is usually blocked up, but it's open for the week at least.


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You can see in the satellite photo that most of the Hill has been removed at this stage, the quarry has fed many major road projects in the area as far as I know, but the tower is still in situ at the top. I remember going up here as a youngster with a friend who lived nearby, when the air was thick with the legend of Fionn Mac Cumhaill and the Fianna - the legend had it that this was their seat, and that Fionn himself was buried here.

So what's up there now? A walk uphill through a forest, with constant signage reminding walkers of the quarry to one side, leading up to a pretty impressive tower which was built as a folly between 1859 and 1863 - each of the 80-something stone steps has the name of a builder carved onto it.



As you get to the top, the tower is capped rather oddly (ignominiously?) by a squat conservatory type structure. Obviously this is to prevent damage to the castellations at the top, but it doesn't help you get a view of the surrounding flat countryside.



The tower is as yet untouched by the quarrying operations and is still impressive in its own right.

 

Unfortunately at the base of the tower the brambles are too high to get any sort of panorama, and at the top, well you're hemmed in a bit. That's the disappointing thing.

Corbally Branch - where does it go?

There was a question in the back of my mind for a long number of years - I knew the Grand Canal left Naas harbour in 2 channels, one toward Sallins, and the other was mystically called the Corbally Branch. I ner knew of a place called Corbally, and I never had the idea to Google it (though if I had I'd have found out all about it).



Until one day, I was travelling from Kilcullen to Newbridge along some backroads and I passed what turned out (after I checked some online maps!) to be the ruined harbour at Corbally. Click!


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A number of weeks since, I took an opportunity to take the camera out and make some picturegraphs to share.  It looks like an old harbour, with some buildings next to it. What the buildings were for, I'm not sure, but they're pretty ruined now - maybe stores for a local business?





Of course, it was a beautiful day. I'd intended to walk along the canal, but poorly I chose the eastern bank and soon the way was blocked by gorse and brambles - the western towpath seems a bit easier, but if you're a sheep, leave your dog at home. (really though, there are sheep farmers here, so do leave your dogs at home!)



Further research (see links below!) notes that this is a feeder, much like Pollardstown Fen for the canal. It's about 5 miles out from Naas, so easily walkable with a picnic (though I say stay west, and check on maps first!).

Links:
http://iwai.ie/maps/grand/maps.grand.23.html
http://kildare.iwai.ie/
http://heritageboatassociation.ie/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=352&Itemid=43

Fionn, Bran, agus Sceolan.

We really are blessed with the art, including public art, produced in this country. You only have to drive the motorways to see some beautiful work, including the ball at Naas, horse and rider at Sligo, some (recently stolen, shame) works on the M7 outside Monasterevin, and many many others the length and breadth of the country. A small percentage of public money from some projects is put aside to provide this art (I believe this was paid for as part of the proceeds from parking revenue in Newbridge), and it's a great thing - I hope art doesn't get too much more of a whittling in the near future.



Anyway, the most recent work I've seen is the work just off the Curragh (Ballymany) interchange south of Newbridge on the M7. By Lynn Kirkham, it's title is "Fionn Mac Cumhaill and his hounds" - more info here. It's a hugely impressive trio of steel, well, sculptures is the wrong word, but figures doesn't capture their majesty, and domination of the roundabout.

I love the styling on the figures, it's got a great martial feel to it, capturing the great legendary warrior and his transmuted nephews (Bran and Sceolan were once human nephews of Fionn) very well.



I hope the rest of my photos speak for themselves!

Some further photographs from the Parade in Newbridge

Wow! I never had as many visitors as I did yesterday, with everyone googling for newbridge parade stuff! So, in case any of you are return visitors, I added a few more pictures today, 2 of the fire brigade and 3 of the Muscle cars at the back of the parade....

Fire Brigade (happy campers!)


More Fire Brigade, in dry suit and in Fire Kit.


V8 power - Camaro and Mustang (and noise!)







I hope you have enjoyed my pictures, I enjoyed taking them.

Parade, Newbridge, Co. Kildare - St. Patrick's Day

Took a trip to Newbridge to see their parade today, and you might be expecting this - I took some photos. There was a fantastic selection of bands, dancers, clubs, and a variety of vehicles from fire engines to vintage cars, from muscle cars to tractors. Congratulations to all involved, it was a great show!

You can see my photos at http://pix.ie/brianp/album/404765! But if not, here are a few for your viewing pleasure.

Drummer - St Conleth's band.


Moorefield GFC's security detail on the trophy trailer...






St. Bathrick was there.....


As was St Patrick, banishing the snake - or was the snake banishing him?


Some pretty capable looking young boxers too...


And some bouncy castles....though this was a momentary loss of air, which was soon restored without any drama!


So again, well done to everyone involved, it was an impressive parade, about an hour and a half's worth. Hopefully it (and the other parades) will have lifted spirits a little. Certainly the cafés and pubs were flat out afterwards!

I may post some more photos later on, but the best are at pix.ie.

I should mention that if anyone wants to use any of the images, drop me a note in the comment box and I'll drop you an email back.

Tune in over the next few days for some pictures of Fionn and his hunting dogs!

A beautiful day, a walk at lunch....

Today was a beautiful spring day, once the fog burnt off. I felt a bit trapped, sitting in the office, blinds closed to reduce the glare of the sun on my screen, so once lunchtime came, I went for a walk down by the river. Of course I took the camerabox with me, and took some snaps.

The daffodils are just blooming now, they're not all up but some are. This pair were getting quite close:


On around the bend in the river, I just about got a picture of this pair, who were getting quite close but for different reasons. Should have been quicker with the camera, I might have got something better:


Later on, as the sun was setting over the Curragh, I tried to take a pic of Fionn and his hounds at the roundabout, and I caught this piece of bark - seems to me to have lots of colour and warm texture so, here it is!


The photo I took of the statue is a bit dull. I'll have to cross into the "island" to get any sort of dramatic photo.

A return to Kilkea, Athy, and some beers.

You may remember I was at Mullaghreelan woods, Kilkea, between Athy and Castledermot recently. Even if you don't, I do, because it wasn't that long ago. Anyway, I remember spotting a spot beside a river that I thought had potential.

Yesterday, with other halves being away on a chicken rouFndup weekend or something, A Friend and I took the opportunity to spend some hours making photographs - where better than this place, thought I. So he came to me, and we ventured on out, with our gear. Turned out to be quite interesting - there's a 5-arched bridge over the river, and quite a long weir - must investigate further, as there may be an old mill further downstream. So plenty of scope for photos - and this is what I got!

An overview of the bridge:


A view along the weir, a nice long exposure for some milky water effects


A picture of A Friend, scouting around for targets - his medium format camera doesn't quite have the portability or the clickability a digital camera has, but it's magnificent to hold and has an amazing viewfinder..


And another detail of the weir - whatever way the water was flowing, it turned out to me it looks like a watercolour - but I didn't paint it!



Following that, the light was fading, so we dropped into the shop to buy some (what I didn't realise was gone off) chicken, then we ordered chinese and fired into the beers:

Porterhouse Red - Excellent, very tasty, nicely drinkable, just the right amount of carbonation. The highlight and first beer down;

Porterhouse Hersbrucker pilsener -  a very fine pilsener, again, nice and tasty but this one for me didn't stand out. Above mass market beers yes, but a kind of ordinary non-standard beer if you get my meaning. Quite hoppy, I think, though I'm never quite sure - need more training.

Wells Banana Bread Beer - well now, this was different. Everyone should try this once. You mightn't have another, but it's very very interesting. I was glad we'd split the bottle two ways, as it's quite an overpowering taste, but a very clever beer. I'll have another, but maybe not for a while! It tastes quite strongly of banana bread. Not sure I had to spell that out...

Sierra Nevada Kellerweis - a hefeweisen beer, nice colour, cloudy as you'd expect, and tasty - which you mightn't expect in this style from the US. Could have more, definitely, nice and fruity. A Friend suggested custard, and I'm inclined to agree, there was a sweet vanilla flavour from the beer, which is definitely reminiscent of custard. Mmmm.

I've been playing with my new Tripod, and enjoying comedy! Not in that order...

Tonight, for a change, I took some photographs. But only after I saw some funny.

Thanks to the guys at Schnitzel, sorry, Schnitzel comedy club, there was a very enjoyable Diet of Worms show at the riverbank this evening. Preceded by Gearoid Farrelly, Alan Bennett (MC) and Mikey, who isn't 26, these guys made me laugh a lot. Again. Having seen them before (call of the puffincat) I was expectant of ribtickling, but this was a hilarious play (and well-acted, too) rather than a hilarious live sketch show.

Set in Strollinstown, the main character is a developer who's been hiding the Recession from his wife. Liberally sprinkled with hilarity, there's also a sense of satire in that maybe we've all been hiding from the recession a little bit.... all good comedy is intelligent too. And this was, and is, good comedy. Go and see it if you get the chance.

And now that I have a tripod, I've been able to take some of the photos I was aching to take for ages - St Conleth's church in Newbridge is very nicely lit up at night, as is the extended bridge in Liffey. Width-wise, that extension was, not lengthwise - the Liffey hasn't expanded. Much.

So, here they are, linked in all their photographical glory to my pix.ie account - enjoy, if you can! Comment if you like!


It really is well lit up. I'm sure that more can be done with this photographically, but I chose to stick with a 50mm prime and see how it worked. Lovely lights, you'll agree!


Interestingly, and I'd hoped I'd timed it properly, the red and green lights are simultaneously on in this image! Some nice light trails there, but they were a bit overpowering. More traffic would be needed for this, so maybe earlier than 2230 for the next shoot! Also it was cold. :(



Does this make sense? I like it!