I was there too
Kinsale’s tidy towns group must work overtime and they do a fantastic job of keeping the town tidy and colourful. These flowers were in a small boat at the end of the quay and make the area look so pretty.
| Aperture | ƒ/3.5 |
| Camera | ILCE-7RM5 |
| Focal length | 24mm |
| ISO | 500 |
| Shutter speed | 1/125s |
If you’ve ever been to Kinsale in Co Cork, you’ll immediately recognise the house and tree in the picture above. If you go back in my archives you’ll probably find a photo of it from another angle, but it’s so nice I thought I should take another photo. 🙂
TIL that style of large, spreading tree you see dominating this Kinsale scene is likely a Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani), which became incredibly fashionable to plant on Irish estates during the Georgian and Victorian periods. These trees were imported from the eastern Mediterranean and became status symbols for wealthy landowners. Having a mature Cedar of Lebanon on your property basically announced “we’ve been here long enough to grow something this impressive.” They can live for over 1,000 years and develop those distinctive horizontal, layered branches that make them instantly recognisable. The tree in this photograph is probably 150-200 years old based on its size and shape, meaning it was likely planted sometime in the early to mid-1800s when Kinsale was thriving as a fishing port and naval base. So that tree has essentially witnessed the entire modern history of the town!
| Aperture | ƒ/5.6 |
| Camera | ILCE-7RM5 |
| Focal length | 49mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 2s |
This small garden caught my eye. It would be a nice space if not for the obligatory bins that every household must have. The left wall is a lovely deep blue, matching the colours of the flowers there.
| Aperture | ƒ/7.1 |
| Camera | ILCE-7RM5 |
| Focal length | 24mm |
| ISO | 6400 |
| Shutter speed | 1/125s |
Parking up by Charles Fort is always easier than trying to get through Summercover near Kinsale. The road is very narrow and steep, both ways, if you’re trying to the to the Bulman Bar.
Those yellow diamond-shaped road signs are actually part of Ireland’s relatively recent road signage system. Before the 1970s, Ireland used the older British-style circular and triangular signs, but when the country adopted the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals, they switched to these diamond-shaped warning signs, making Ireland one of the few English-speaking countries to use this continental European style. The “10%” gradient warning means the road drops 10 metres for every 100 metres travelled horizontally, which is steep enough that most driving instructors would consider it “character building” for learner drivers!
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | ILCE-7RM5 |
| Focal length | 110mm |
| ISO | 2000 |
| Shutter speed | 1/250s |
Someone was going to be cycling home after dark from here in Kinsale.
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | ILCE-7RM5 |
| Focal length | 24mm |
| ISO | 5000 |
| Shutter speed | 1/125s |
An emergency exit sign spotted in the first floor window of a building in Kinsale, Co Cork. Despite the shadows, the sign gives a clue to the internal floor plan of the building. It looks a bit out of place, but it has to be there.
Georgian sash windows like this one were originally designed as a fire safety feature themselves. The large panes and sliding mechanism made them easy escape routes during emergencies, which is why many Georgian buildings have windows that open directly onto the street rather than requiring ladders to reach. The modern exit sign is actually continuing a 300-year-old tradition of prioritising safe evacuation!
| Aperture | ƒ/6.3 |
| Camera | ILCE-7RM5 |
| Focal length | 132mm |
| ISO | 4000 |
| Shutter speed | 1/640s |
A flower growing out of the crack between two blocks on the quayside in Kinsale, Co Cork.
There it was, growing in the unlikeliest of places, just doing its thing right in the middle of all the grey.
| Aperture | ƒ/3.5 |
| Camera | ILCE-7RM5 |
| Focal length | 24mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/320s |
Someone walking past a sail in Kinsale made for a nice slow-motion intentional camera movement photo.
| Aperture | ƒ/5.6 |
| Camera | ILCE-7RM5 |
| Focal length | 49mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1.3s |
I visited Kinsale recently with Blarney Photography Club. Many photos were taken all around the town, but I went down the quay to start with the boats mooored nearby.
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | ILCE-7RM5 |
| Focal length | 46mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 2s |
A red house in Kinsale. Observant readers will recall I posted another photo of this house a few months ago.
| Aperture | ƒ/9 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 40mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/4s |
Pink roses stood out against the dark bushes and overgrowth over a wall in Kinsale last summer.
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 78mm |
| ISO | 4000 |
| Shutter speed | 1/320s |
