One of the old cars on Cape Clear Island.
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 40D |
| Focal length | 88mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/200s |
Just an Old Car
Tag Archives: Oileán Chléire
Murphy’s
A Murphy’s Stout glass sits on a wall on the island of Cape Clear. That’s not Murphy’s in it obviously. That’d be a strange looking stout!
Happy new year everyone!
| Aperture | ƒ/16 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 40D |
| Focal length | 18mm |
| ISO | 400 |
| Shutter speed | 1/640s |
A boat in Cape Clear
A solitary boat in the North Harbour, Cape Clear Island.
PS. Check out Jolt++, a new photoblog created by fellow Automatticer Michael Pick. Great photos, and I really like the Tumble theme. I wonder how I’d squeeze my adverts into such a theme?
PPS. My brother Donal was featured on the envelope of the first issue of new Irish stamps commemorating Irish pipers. If the day job ever fails, you can always try your hand at modelling!
PPPS. Server was down for several hours, sorry. VPS was upgraded to “Xen” and failed to reboot. I didn’t realise I could reboot it until a few minutes ago..
| Aperture | ƒ/11 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 40D |
| Focal length | 88mm |
| ISO | 400 |
| Shutter speed | 1/400s |
Tigh Mor ar Oilean Chleire
When you walk up one of the hills from the North Harbour in Cape Clear Island you’ll walk past this house at the top of the incline. It’s been there forever, and 15 years ago, the back of the house was a small shop selling sweets and other goodies. It’s a B&B now I think, certainly not a shop!
| Aperture | ƒ/11 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 40D |
| Focal length | 18mm |
| ISO | 400 |
| Shutter speed | 1/320s |
An Siopa Beag
An Siopa Beag ar Oilean Chleire is the small shop on Cape Clear Island in The Club in the North Harbour. It’s more than a shop of course, and tables are set up outside for customers to enjoy their tea or whatever they’re eating.
| Aperture | ƒ/13 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 40D |
| Focal length | 18mm |
| ISO | 400 |
| Shutter speed | 1/400s |
An club agus an cnoc
The club and the hill. This is the North Harbour in Cape Clear Island. The club is familiar to all who visit this part of the world, as are the hills unfortunately. This particular hill overlooks the whole harbour and feels like a 45 degree struggle at times.
I still have memories of climbing it as a youngster on a hot and humid May day while a student at Colaiste Ciaran. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that!
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 40D |
| Focal length | 18mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/160s |
Tir na nOg ar Oilean Chleire
Tir na nOg is the house on the right of this photo. It’s a house that Colaiste Ciaran, an Irish summer school on the island, rents during the summer and where I spent a number of weeks years and years ago. The long, low building attached to the left is a canteen.
An Oige have a large hostel further down, near the stony beach. I remember looking with curiosity and longing at the kayaks in a nearby shed. Us students never got anything quite as exciting as those!
| Aperture | ƒ/9 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 40D |
| Focal length | 18mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/200s |
San Francisco 4884m
San Francisco is 4884nm (nautical miles?) from Cape Clear in Co Cork. Have you noticed the misspelling yet? I never did until a few minutes ago!
| Aperture | ƒ/14 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 40D |
| Focal length | 24mm |
| ISO | 400 |
| Shutter speed | 1/320s |
Cottages in decay
Two tiny cottages sit on the quayside in Cape Clear’s North Harbour. You might have missed them when you arrived because they’re off in the opposite direction most people take.
I was quite taken with the contrast between both cottages. While both are obviously old and have seen better days, the left one has a new roof and a PVC door and window. I wonder if anyone lives there?
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 40D |
| Focal length | 88mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/200s |
The cars of Cape Clear
Cape Clear Island, or Oilean Chleire, is only 3 miles long and 1 mile wide, but it’s only 40 minutes by ferry to the mainland so it’s fairly easy to bring out vehicles. In fact, I saw many more cars on the island than I did on my last trip.
As you may have guessed by the photo above, once the cars get here, they really don’t go anywhere else, and many of them are in a bad state of repair. On a previous trip, my father and I were driven up a very steep hill above the harbour in a multicoloured VW Beetle that was literally falling apart with rust. I’ll post a photo of the hill in a few days.
There also isn’t a police force on the island. I don’t think cars here are insured or taxed and you can forget the NCT ..
Apart from the two taxi vans sitting on the quay when we arrived, the newest car was a 1999 model. The oldest was a 1986 Renault. The taxis were had 2004 reg plates and in good condition.
I’d love to how or why the van in the far background got to the Island. It looks abandoned now.
| Aperture | ƒ/7.1 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 40D |
| Focal length | 18mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/125s |
Cape Clear North Harbour
The north harbour in Cape Clear is the main harbour on the island. There’s a south harbour as well but there’s only a small beach there, and a long quayside where the occasional small boat ties up.
To the left you can see the Club which is a small shop/cafe on the ground floor, while around the corner and upstairs is a pub. Last time I was in the pub was many years ago when I was at a book launch with my father. Up the hill is Cotter’s Bar. Never been in there, despite the fact we holidayed on the island so many times.
Finally, a new bungalow sits on a patch of land bordering the road. This wasn’t there the last time I stayed on the island for any length of time, about 15 years ago.
| Aperture | ƒ/9 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 40D |
| Focal length | 48mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/160s |
Speeding Boat
A speedboat, at speed, races past the more sedate Naomh Ciaran II on our way to Oilean Cleire, or Cape Clear. You can see the island itself in the background!
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 40D |
| Focal length | 106mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/320s |