Taking only photographs – leaving only footprints
Walking around the gardens at Blarney Castle, it is full of colourful surprises and delights. From sculptures to amazing flower beds. My favourite was the herbaceous border that seemed to go on forever. This Agrostemma flower was growing nearby to the Blarney House. It is an annual plant also known as the common corncockle and is a native of Europe. It was the bright purple that caught my eye with the dark green plants behind.
Most well known for Blarney Castle and the Blarney Stone, the Blarney Estate has much more to see if you have time for a walk around the grounds. This is Blarney House. A Scottish baronial style mansion built in 1874. It was build by John Lanyon of Lanyon, Lynn and Lanyon architects. The Colthurst family still lives in this house so we weren’t able to go inside. The gardens surrounding the house are well worth seeing, especially in summer when the flowers are all the colours of the rainbow.
Built in 1446 this is the main tower of Blarney Castle in Cork, Ireland. Home of the Blarney Stone. If you look closely to the right of the image you can see the shade of someone’s arm and head as they lead backwards over the metal grates to kiss the Blarney Stone. Legend says if you hang upside-down over this drop to kiss the stone you get the gift of the gab (eloquence). This close up view caught my eye as I liked the contrast between the sunny side and shaded side of the tower with the bright sky behind. Blarney Castle and Gardens photograph shows a wider view of the surrounding castle and gardens.
West View is a steep street of 23 colourful terraced houses in Cobh. The street goes down to the harbour. This is taken from the small West View Park as these bright pink and purple flowers caught my eye. Looming in the background is St Colman’s Catheral. There is a much more iconic point of view from Spy Hill looking down on the Deck of Cards Houses. I’d like to try and capture that in the early morning when the sun would be lighting up the colourful houses more. This is why I chose this lower down, more layered view of the houses. There were also a lot of cars parked in front of the houses which I found to be a little distracting.