Cork

Just after sunrise the eastern face of the Bull Rock is lit by the morning light. In this image the lighthouse and associated buildings can be seen, including the steps down to the landing, and the helipad. The unique gasworks building which was constructed right against the eastern cliff can also be made out, just above the natural tunnel that bores through the island.

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.

The entrance to Crookhaven Harbour is guarded by this headland. Seen here on a fine winter's morning.

The expanding gannet colony on the Bull Rock can be clearly seen here as the white area occupying nearly the entire southern side of the rock. The white dots around the island are the birds themselves.

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

The Fastnet Lighthouse at dawn on a blustery day.

A Napoleonic-era watchtower guards the dramatic headland of Black Ball Head.

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.

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.

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 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.

Mizen Head at sunrise, from the air.

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

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.