Pictures of Ireland

Castle Matrix from the outside. A shame the top of it got cut off in printing. Castle Matrix stands to the northwest of Killarney, near the Shannon River.

The View from Castle Matrix's (matricies? ha) roof.

A fireplace in the expansive library of Castle Matrix.

A field... somewhere in Co. Kerry.

This Castle lies in ruin between Kilgarven and Kenmare, a bit south of Killarney. It was advertised on a mural to the right of the viewable area of this next picture-

The Main Drag in Kilgarven, my ancestor's home town. Healy's are as common as grass here. I have to spell my name twice in the states.

A spiked wall, somewhere behind where I took the previous picture.

Across the Beara penninsula (south and west of Killarney/Kenmare)lies the Healy Pass, named after someone probably not as related to me as I'd hope.

The view from the top of the Healy Pass.

A lake near Kilgarven. We stopped here after our trek through the Healy Pass.

The Ogham Stone is the tallest monolith in Europe. It most probably marks the grave of an ancient druid chief or something like that.

On our way to the Ogham Stone, we noticed the obvious: dogs can't read.

"Beauty" - I THINK this scene can be found somewhere south of Killarney, near the Beara penninsula.

The (in)famous Ring of Kerry holds possession of this scene.

The amount of people who flock to this relatively (compared to my other landscapes) mundane site is staggering.

The Burren, a location between Shannon and Galway in northern County Clare, is aptly named after the Irish word for "rock." The large pile of rocks is one of the oldest druidic burial sites in ireland.

Our third castle, this tower has a nice view of the Burren. It's now somewhat of an art museum. My father is standing at the base of the tower, in the left part of this picture.

The amazing Aran Islands are home to rocks, sheep, and Gaelic-speaking natives. The islands are near Westport on the map above. It is the home of the famous "Aran Tweed" wool. This was probably one of the top three places I visited in Ireland.

We stopped to visit this ancient druidic burial site near Sligo, on our way up to Donegal. Several of these rocks were piled in this large open field.

I took this opportunity to capture the absurdity of our party's photographic tendencies.

Ina is tying her shoe on an ancient druidic burial site. That can't be good.

We were treated to this scene on our way up to Co. Donegal. This was taken immediately after an overlook; where we found a sheep's skull that took residence in our rental car's back window, to scare away tailgaters.

A beautiful valley in Donegal county. The county is most of the Republic of Ireland north of Sligo, and this particular valley lies on the northeast inland portion of the western penninsula. This is also my favorate photo from the entire trip. Download a bigger version for use as wallpaper.

The road conditions in Ireland are shown here. That was a major road in Donegal; only about the size of some American alleys. Then you have to deal with sheep. This was taken from our car, using a telephoto lens.

This abbey used to be a private residence, but it was given to a group of nuns after the owner's death. This was also a MAJOR tourist attraction, which is apparent if you look closely: The cars around the abbey, the guy in blue.. Hoards of people were behind me taking the exact same photo.