Aerials

The Fastnet Lighthouse at dawn on a blustery day.

The Fastnet is certainly Ireland’s finest lighthouse. Difficult to land on, and all but impossible to step from a boat for most of the year, this aerial view shows the typical angry sea that surrounds it.
Cape Clear Island is visible on the horizon, the closest point of land to the rock, often called the ‘Teardrop of Ireland’ as it was the last thing emigrants saw of their home country when sailing to America and Australia.

The Old Head of Kinsale is home to one of the world's most spectacular golf courses. Covering the end of the peninsula itself, bounded by cliffs on all sides with only a narrow isthmus connecting it to the rest of the peninsula, it's a strange mixture of wilderness and manicured beauty.
There has been a lighthouse at the Old Head since 1665. The original building is still present and was a cottage type with an open fire on its roof. The current 40-foot tower was built in 1853.
This photograph was made near sunset on a late summer's evening. The view is to the north with the golf course and lighthouse in the foreground and Kinsale town on the main coast to the right of frame. The low angle of the sun creates dramatic shadows which show the beautiful sculpting of the golf course very clearly.
Made with an ultra-high resolution digital sensor, in a large print golfers can be clearly seen on the course.

The Fastnet is the southernmost point of Ireland, and known as "Ireland's Teardrop" as it was often the last sight of home for emigrants heading to the New World.

Seen here in the aftermath of a storm, the trough of a swell passes by the rock, revealing details not normally seen.

A popular beach on summer afternoons, Barley Cove is one of Cork's most beautiful beaches. Seen from the air on an October afternoon, beautiful broken light plays across the landscape.

Ardnakinna guards the western tip of Bere Island. Seen here from the air at sunrise.

A close in view of the lighthouse at the end of the Old Head of Kinsale on a beautiful Autumn evening. The golf course and clubhouse is visible in the background.

Dramatic fingers of rock reach out from Galley Head at sunrise.

Ireland's most southerly point, Brow Head doesn't get nearly the attention its near neighbour, Mizen Head does. However, seen from the air especially, it's an incredible place.

The lantern of the Fastnet lighthouse glows as the first rays of sun strike it on a beautiful spring morning.

Rabbit Island lies just off Myross in West Cork, near Union Hall. Uninhabited now, there are the remains of a house on the northern shore, and seaweed was once gathered around its shores.

A man walks his dog as the waves roll in on one of Cork's most popular beaches.

Ardnakinna is simultaneously one of the youngest and oldest lighthouses around the coast. The tower was originally constructed in 1850 as an unlit beacon, and was then converted to a full lighthouse by adding an ex-lightship lantern in 1965.
Seen here from the Irish Lights helicopter while returning from a visit to the Fastnet, the mouth of Bere Haven harbour is on the left and Castletownbere itself is in the background.