52 week Black and White

Week 11

Continuing this week with another Irish photo rally point. This one is just a couple of mile from my home. The Dromara Destroyers roadracers. Here in Ireland a lot off motorcycle racing is done on public roads that are closed to the public for the days racing. The four that made up The Dromara Destroyers are Brian Reid, Ray McCullough, Trevor Steele and Ian McGregar. I grew up watching this racers through the1960’s, 1970’s and into the 1990’s.

I grew on one of the oldest road racing courses in Ireland, the Temple 100. I include a YouTube link

So back to the Dromara Destroyers garden in the village of Dromara, County Down, Northern Ireland.

Temple 100 road race.

These are just four of the many racers that gave us some great racing here in Ireland. I take my hat off to all of them, the ones that are still racing, the ones retired and those that died too young.

This week one of the biggest road races in the world is happing, The Isle of man TT. Yesterday a local racer lost his life competing on the island.

Davy Morgan R. I. P, and deepest sympathy to his family and friends.

Thank you for dropping by.

George☘️

52 week Black and White

Week 10

I have missed a couple of week’s posts due to a bout of illness. But back on track, so we are going to Ballydevitt Cottage in County Londonderry . I have tried to find some history about this small cottage,without success.

I talked to a local couple but they are only a few years in the area, so at some point I will go back and see if I can get some information about it’s history.

Ballydevitt Cottage

This is another Irish photo rally point, it’s in Aghadowey, County Londonderry.

I’m going to add the coordinates which you can copy to Google maps and go to street view to see the location.

55. 03506100° – 6.64184700°

Have a great weekend and take care.

George☘️

52 week Black and White

Week 9

Hello and welcome, here we are at the start off another month. So this week’s photo comes from County Meath, Ireland and the grand gateway to Rathaldron Castle a few kilometres from Navan town.

Some of the castles history can be found at this link: http://www.navanhistory.ie/index.php?page=rathaldron-castle

Rathaldron Castle

Thank you for viewing, have a great week.

George ☘️

52 week Black and White

week five.

So with a mini heat wave this week I got out on the motorbike. I done one off the Irish photo rally points. http://www.irishphotorally.ie/

For those that look at the I. P. R site this photo is number five on the map.

This is the old Water pump/post office in Donaghmoyne in County Monaghan.

The date above the door is 1857, not sure if it was a post office from that date.. Today it could be somes home.

The m/c is a BMW r1200gs and me and this old girl has covered many happy miles. Hopefully a few more this year.

On the road again.

On the road again  and another few Irish photo rally photography’s in the bag.

Rally Map link : Irish photo rally map

Set off around 7.30 am on a bright dry but still cool Sunday morning  from my home on the NE side of Ireland in County down.  My first rally point was in county Longford. My satnav tells me its just under 3 hours away. I head west before turning south through County Cavan and into Co. Longford. Number 7 on the map and its an aqueductjust north of the village of Abbeyshrule.

Coast 14.4.2018-2733.jpg

Photo rally 2018-2736.jpg

On the photo rally site they call this the Whitworth Aqueduct but the sign says..

Photo rally 2018-2735.jpg

Maybe its got two names????

Has happens when doing the rally points the locals stop for a chat, wondering why motorcycles are turning up and photographs taken. most welcome the interest in their home area. Then it was down to the town of Athlone where I was meeting some friends for a coffee and a chat. Been a few months since we got together, a few of us will be going over to Wales in the UK for a few days later in the year. Another post.

The next stop was in the county of Kildare, number 9 on the map. Another canal, this time the Grand canal 3km north  from the town of Monasterevin.

Photo rally 2018-2748.jpg

MacCartney’s Lock and bridge over the Grand Canal in County Kildare. I was here I met a local man, 92 years young. A fresh looking man for his years who spent some time telling me about the lock and the near by mill. A story about a canal barge worker that was killed when a barrel of beer fell while unloading, senting the injured man into the canal where he drowned. I love the people i meet while travelling.

Photo rally 2018-2751.jpgThatched cottages beside the lock.

Photo rally 2018-2755.jpg

Lock gates holding the water back.  For anyone not sure what a lock is, its where the water level differ due to a difference in land levels. There are gates at each end so if a Canal boat was going for the higher level to the lower, the gates at the lower end were closed and the upper slowly open which lets the lock fill up. The canal boat comes into the lock and the upper gates close. then the lower gates open and the water level drops and the canal boat is now at the lower level and sails out of the lock.

Turning north and my next stop was to stop in the town of Edenderry in Co.Offaly. Time to catch up over another coffee with a couple of friends before doing my last photo for the day.  It was now raining hard, a wet ride a short distance north to the Hill of Down post office in County Meath.

Photo rally 2018-2757.jpg

The hill of Down post office and shop and pub. Has you can see it’s still raining. I only got one photo here and has I was packing up another bike pulled in. So has I was to discover his name was Terry from the town of Ardee in County Louth. We sat talking bikes, motorcycle racing and traveling and the rain just got heavier. Saying goodbye and around 30 miles later the rain stopped. The next few hours was in dry and a fuel stop and a warm coffee, well it was getting cool and i like coffee. With both fuelled it was a relaxing ride north.

Thank you for visiting.

George.

 

Irish Photo Rally post no.2

Another Sunday morning and I’m off for another day on the road. Going to do numbers 4,5,6 and 22 on the rally Map but not in that order. With a bright morning it was of to County Armagh and the Benburb Heritage Centre. Link here Benburb centre.

IPR2018-2617.jpg

 

IPR2018-2616.jpg

Not sure if this centre is still open, it was closed the day I was there. Below is a detail built into a wall of some gear wheels at the start of a cycle trail.

IPR2018-2612.jpg

Next up was number 6 on the rally map,  Coolbuck Church of Ireland in the county “Fermanagh/Tyrone” region. This is the smallest church in Ireland that is still used on a weekly bases.

 

IPR2018-2622.jpg

IPR2018-2625.jpg

IPR2018-2623.jpg

Across the border (UK/ ROI) to number 5 on the map on the county Cavan border.

It was the old  Bawnboy Workhouse, more info here workhouse 

IPR2018-2628.jpg

IPR2018-2630.jpg

IPR2018-2629.jpg

Cloud cover was building up and I decided to try of one more before the rain started. So we jump to number 22 on the map. Which saw me heading to county Leitrim and my next rally point  Jimmy’s Hall. Has you will see in the photos there is no hall but a monument to the man. His name was James Gralton the only Irish man that was ever deported from his home country. A flim was made about his life and some history can be found here.             about the flim          James Gralton history

IPR2018-2633-2.jpg

With the weather catching up with me it was time to turn north and the three hour ride home. Got caught in a few rain showers but overall it was a grand day on the road.

Thank you for visiting, take care.

George.

Irish Photo Rally 2017 (3)

So out on the road again, this time over to Boyle in County Roscommon. This is listed has number 23 on the rally map, link Here .

PRP.23.JPG

While getting this photo I met a local lady, No name given but was told a little of the history behind the steam driven motor and the generator sitting to the front. She lived outside the town when a child. She is 80 years young and bright has a spark. Her father use to take her and her sister up onto a hill top close to her home to see the northern lights. It was only when she got older that realized what her father was showing them was the electric lights in the town of Boyle. It’s a Blackstone engine  and helped generate electricity for Boyle until 1965 with DC power. After our chat I did offer to take her a spin around the town on the bike, with a wink of her eye and telling me if she was ten years younger we parted with a laugh and a smile on my face. A wonderful women.

My next trip out was to County Mayo over on the west coast, this time to a remote, or  has we would say ” in the asshole of nowhere” to find a disused footbridge. The ride out to it was all single track roads, passing  a remote house out here you wonder what it must be like in winter since its flat scrub land and the wind was racing across it. When I got to the bridge the road ends and a private lane continues up to a farm about a half mile away. The river it crosses has brown water due to it running through the peat bog’s, and here’s a tip don’t drink the water.

PRP.20.JPG

It turned out to be a long day in the saddle and the rain held off for most of the day.

My next ride out was up to the northern part of County Donegal, Glenveagh National Park area. The day was great with blue sky’s from early morning it promised to be a warm day. Going direct from home to the rally point was around 3.5 hours but I’m not known for going the direct route. The plan was to travel through Counties Monaghan, Cavan, Fermanagh and into Donegal. Up the shore of lower Lough Erne in Country Fermanagh to Kesh.

1IPR lower lough Erne.JPG

This was taken from a view point just outside Kesh town in County Fermanagh, this is looking north up Lower lough Erne.

Then onto the small town of Pettigo which is in part of Northern Ireland (UK) and part in Donegal (ROI). Through Donegal town and a drive up the centre of the county to Church hill. Then follow the R251 (road)around the north of Glenveagh National Park and down to lough Dunlewy.

 

IPR.1a.JPG

This is looking down from the road on the side of Mount Errigal, Donegals highest mountain. The lough in Lough Dunlewy and the area with the church ruins in the bottom left is the Poisoned Glen. The history of the glen is linked with the photo rally point which is just out of shot in the top right of this photo. Here’s a link to the Poisoned Glen.

The church ruins in the Poisoned Glen was a photo rally point a few years back.

Next the Rally Point, this is number 1 on the map. It’s called Lugh Lambfada and another link. Lugh

IPR.1.JPG

Not a great time of day for photography with high contrast but sometimes you have to make do. This is Lugh and here is the pilot of the bike to give scale to the sculpture

IPR.1c.JPG

Complete with body armour in case I had to fight him. I done another rally point in Northern Ireland on the return trip but well leave that from another post

Thank you all for visiting and be safe wherever you are.

Irish Photo Rally 2016

For a number of years I and many others do the Irish Photo Rally. Motorcyclist from all over Ireland and further afield travel around Ireland photographing their motorcycles at the given locations. So with it being a lovely spring afternoon I thought I would make a start on this years rally. With the bike ready and camera loaded off I went to Ballydugan Mill. Ballydugan Mill

This is number 4 on the rally map but there is no order in which they have to be completed. So arriving early evening and the sun still shining this is my photo for this entry. photo rally link

photo.rally19.03.2016a.JPG

So with my first photo in the bag I decided to travel a few more mile around the County Down coast. My next stop was at the lighthouse on Saint John’s Point. This was a photo rally point a few years ago.

photo.rally19.03.2016c.JPG

The view across the sea to the Mourne Mountains is beautiful from the shore on the other side of the lighthouse. Back on the single track road and I stopped for another photo across the bay.

photo.rally19.03.2016b.JPG

With the rays of sunshine breaking through the clouds and mountains has a backdrop had to get a shot here. There is a sandy beach a mile along the road that’s popular with families young and old. My next stop was the fishing port of Ardglass where a cup of coffee had my name on it. Sat in the evening sun and and watched the gulls put on a flying display over the harbour. No photos here, this village needs a day spent here for there is so much to see.  Coffee and it’s off I go again this time heading for the town of Strangford. Here the ferry runs across the lough to Portaferry on the Ards  peninsula. Strangford

With the last of the evening sun I stopped off at Kilclief Castle  Kilclief Castle

photo.rally19.03.2016d.JPG

With the sun dropping and the temperature going the same way it way time to head home. With just over  a hours ride home its was dark and cold.  Time for a hot shower, a coffee and a look over my photographs before hitting the sack.(bed) It was a grand afternoon out, time to plan my next one.

Will be bring you a few more views from around Ireland over the next few months has my journey around the rally map continues.

Thank you for visiting