Old Head of Kinsale II, Co. Cork

I made this on the same flight as my wider aerial of the Old Head, the one showing the full sweep of the peninsula reaching into the Atlantic. But I wanted a second pass, tighter, right in on the lighthouse itself.

The Old Head is a place I keep coming back to. The lighthouse has stood here since 1853, perched on the edge of dark, layered cliffs that drop straight into the sea. From the air you get a real sense of how exposed it is. The black and white stripes look almost like a graphic design exercise against that rough coastal rock. Small white outbuildings cluster around it, connected by narrow paths winding across the headland. A tiny outpost at the end of a very long drop.

Late afternoon sun was coming in low from the west, warm and directional, throwing hard shadows across the cliff faces and giving real depth to the geology. The detail in this photograph is remarkable. Printed large, you can pick out individual buildings, the texture of the rock, the paths. And if you look carefully at the green grass above the cliffs, you can actually make out golfers on the course behind the lighthouse. One of the most dramatic coastal locations in Ireland, and people are trying to keep a ball on the fairway!

This is a place with weight. A Celtic promontory fort long before the lighthouse existed. The Lusitania sank just offshore in 1915. All of that is visible from above in a way you simply cannot appreciate from the ground. It rewards close looking, which is exactly what I was after.