the ruined abbey of Howth, Ireland (friday foto finder: ruin)

During my trip to Dublin in May, I went on a little excursion to the seaside town of Howth with a friend. (A few other photos are posted here and here.) The town was beautiful, and the weather was perfect for a casual stroll. After we walked along the harbor, we decided to head up into one of the townhouse-lined roads that cut into the hillside. We could see glimpses of a ruin here and there between the rooftops.

It was quite striking looking, but there wasn’t any obvious way to get up there. (At least not obvious from the street. Probably people with maps and/or guidebooks could find the way obvious. But it was more of an adventure to explore without these things.)

Soon enough, we came across this intriguing little stairway that climbed through a narrow canyon-like space between some stone walls. There were no signs that said where they led. On the other hand, there were also no signs that told us not to go that way.

The stairs led up to another road, or perhaps another bend of the same winding road, up higher on the hill. And a quick walk led to an overlook and entrance to the ruins and cemetery.

It was quite a beautiful and dramatic place to wander and photograph.

The moral of the story: Climb any intriguing stairways that are not marked with signs telling you not to.


This week’s friday foto finder theme is “ruin,” which gave me a nice opening to share these photos. To see what other ruins have been discovered, pay a visit to the fff blog!

a few views of Howth harbour (friday foto finder: lighthouse)

During my visit to Dublin back in May, I took a few short daytrips to nearby towns. One day before the conference started, a friend also in town for the conference and I took the DART out to Howth, a small fishing town on the coast.

A short walk from the train station brought us to a small harbour sheltered by a breakwater with a walkway. We caught glimpses of a lighthouse as we walked.

We walked out to the end of the breakwater, and enjoyed the views of the harbour, nearby rocky islands and cliffs, and this little lighthouse. Then we turned around to wander more around the town and hills.

One of the paths we took led us up to the short round tower that can be seen atop this hill. (The tower is a Martello tower a type of lookout tower/fort that the British built around many locations along the coasts of the British Isles and beyond.)

The hilltop offered great views of the harbour.

And my trusty telephoto lens brought me close to the lighthouse once more.

This little excursion to Howth turned out to be one of the high points of my trip, and I have lots more photos from that day. (Happily, I indeed still have them, because I nearly didn’t. This was the town where I almost lost my camera. I’d left if slung over the back of my chair in a dimly dark little cellar pub below the train station, and I didn’t realize the fact until on the train heading back to Dublin…Perhaps a story for another day?)

This week’s friday foto finder theme was “lighthouse.” To catch glimpses of other lighthouses, pay a visit to the fff blog.
fff 200x60