Highlands of Kerry

© Copyright, All Rights Reserved,
Barry W. Hollritt, 1996 

Ireland is a plethora of lakes, valleys, fields, farms and of course the sea.  You are never more than  115 kilometers from the sea as you travel through Ireland, even though this photograph was taken on the Iveragh Peninsula, the land mass in the southwest of Ireland that is often referred to as the "Ring of Kerry".  Not far from a place known as the "Black Valley", I came upon a scene that exemplified what I had been looking for in all of Ireland; a place that showed the rugged, rocky, desolate landscape, as well as capturing the greens of vegetation.  As you travel through Ireland, you are always reminded of the desolation and the times of famine, when millions of Irish abandoned their homeland and departed for America, leaving stone homes abandoned.  The scene you see has both a red roofed barn in the foreground, yet if you look closer, you will see a roofless stone structure even closer.  However, even in the highlands of county Kerry, you see a healthy, spirited horse in the photo, which to me gives a balance of life and desolation to this photograph.  I purposely waited for the ever present clouds to appear, making sure the scene was not entirely in a picture perfect sunlight, since after all, my feeling of Ireland is one of rain as well as green.  As you look at the photograph, you will see a masked detail in the cloud-covered mountains in the distance, as well as feeling of warmth in the sun-covered foreground.  I get both warmth and cold from the photo, just like the weather I experienced.