Last Sunday evening we flew over from Gatwick and into Cork, with the most stunning sky and sunset which just seemed to sit on the horizon for ages. I suppose being so close to the summer solstice and traveling west, the sun hardly seemed to set. Once in Cork, we got a taxi over to the Clarion Hotel in town and checked in there for the night. The hotel seemed rather nice, and after check in we popped downstairs to the hotel bar for a bit of Prosecco before calling it a night. Then Monday morning, after a bit of a sleep in, we headed downstairs to the swimming pool and spa for a few hours, before checking out. It landed up being a fantastic sunny morning, so decided to grab coffee and a bite to eat from Coffee Pod on Lapp's Quay just next to the hotel entrance.

After our coffee and brunch outside Coffee Pod, Claire and Biddy came by and picked us up and we headed over to Blackrock Castle for lunch. Blackrock Castle, formerly Mahon Castle, is a 16th-century castle located about 2 km from the heart of Cork city, Ireland on the banks of the River Lee.

Once we were done with lunch we made our way over to Claire and Michael's house for tea and coffee until Michael was home from work, then he took myself, Uns and Biddy down west. After a quick bite to eat, we decided to head up to Declan's fields and timed it just as they were all finishing up with the baling of the hay. It would've been good to see a bit more of it, but with the weather looking a bit ominous, they probably rushed through the last of it to finish up before the rain moved in.

Tuesday was just spent taking it fairly easy around the house, with the weather fairly miserable and windy outside, so wasn't quite the summers afternoon we'd wanted. But instead we decided to take Kevin and Donnacha to the cinema in Bantry and watch World War Z - an apocalyptic horror film about a UN employee who traverses the world in a race against time to stop the Zombie pandemic that is toppling armies and governments, and threatening to destroy humanity itself. Need I say more? To be honest, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be, but maybe watching it in 3D gave it that little something extra. After the cinema we headed back and stopped in at Leslie's Cross Road Diner, a road side fast food diner just near the main roundabout outside Skibbereen. After burgers and chips all round, we headed back home and dropped the boys off. It seemed like the sun was trying to break through the clouds, so Uns and myself took a circular drive around Toe Head to try snap a few photos of the dark and cloudy sunset.

Wednesday was still quite overcast and windy, but we decided to head out in the car past Clonakilty over towards South-Ring for a few photo ops. We tried to find Simon's Cove where'd I'd previously gone with Rohan Reilly in my workshop weekend, but landed up further along the coast so decided to give it a go instead. We landed up spending a bit of time there, as well as a bit of a trek along the beach and rocks to try and get the right angle for a long exposure. Probably a bit more effort than it was actually worth. Guess that's my photography stubbornness coming out!

After a while down on the beach, the cool wind started to pick up, so we figured we'd head over to Inchydoney for lunch at Dunes Pub & Bistro where'd we gone after Brian and Lorraine's wedding last year in October. I had the West Cork seafood chowder which was excellent, as well as being nice and warming. It just isn't summer is it? :( After lunch we made our way back home for dinner and then took Donnacha and Eamonn out for a spin and over to Skibbereen for an ice-cream, which they loved!

The most part of Thursday was spent over at the house in Caim which needed some cleaning and airing out by Uns and her mom. So while they were busy doing their bit inside the house, I popped down to the water's edge to snap a few photos. At the bottom of their garden sits the ivy-clad Raheen Castle, which was once the home of the O'Donovans, an ancient Royal family from Gaelic times. Back in 1560 they built the impressive Castledonovan in Drimoleague and this smaller version near the water's edge in Castlehaven Harbour. Then in 1641, the family had to escape from Castledonovan to Raheen Castle when they were attacked and the castle remained their residences after that. Now only the west wall remains intact with portions of the south and north walls.

After grabbing a few pictures of the castle and some others overlooking the water, I also took a quick drive up to the top of the hill for a couple of photos and then down to the harbour for a few more. Once Uns and Biddy were done with the house, we headed back home, grabbed a bite to eat then made our way into Skibbereen to meet up with Margaret at her place for a coffee. We didn't stay too long, Uns just wanted a quick catch up before we made our way over to Knockdrum Fort for sunset. Probably not the most amazing of sunsets, but nice up on top by the Fort watching the sun go down. Once it has disappeared we made our way back to the house via Skibb for a quick ice-cream stop.

Friday was our first nice sunny and clear day, so I figured I'd maximise the day by getting up early for a sunset. I thought I'd head down to Toe Head and try one from there looking out towards the Stags. It landed up being a lot more misty then I expected, but managed to get one decent one that morning, which is the main thing! After sometime out around Toe Head, it was back home for breakfast and ready for our drive out to Kenmare.

We had forgotten Uns' purse in Michael's car on Monday when he brought us down, so had planned to head out to Kenmare to pick it up from Teresa who had picked it up from Cork during the week. Plus we thought it would be a nice drive out into Kerry for the morning. After breakfast we set out towards Kenmare, stopping for a coffee at Adrigole Arts stall and then from there it was up and over the Healy Pass and into County Kerry. Over on the Kerry side, I wanted to head back to Glanmore Lake where is previously been on my photography workshop and retake a couple of photos there. From Glanmore Lake, we stopped a couple of times for a few photos, then continued onto Teresa's place for lunch.

After something to eat there, and picking up Una's purse, we made our way back to Bawn on the Kenmare to Glengarriff road, which passes through the Turners Rock Tunnels, of which there are 4 tunnels. The longest tunnel has a hole drilled in the rock above and the sunlight forms a line on the ground which is the Cork and Kerry border. The road isn't quite as picturesque as the Healy Pass road, but wanted to get back in good time. I had booked a photographic boat trip out to the Fastnet Lighthouse, so wanted to make sure we were back in good time. After a quick change of clothes and a bite to eat, I headed down to Baltimore, met Rohan and the group, and headed out in the boat for a few hours out to the Fastnet and back. The Fastnet Rock (or just Fastnet) is situated 13km from the Irish mainland and is the most southerly point of Ireland. Due to its location, Fastnet was known as 'Ireland's Teardrop' because it was the last part of Ireland that Irish emigrants would see as they sailed to the United States in the 19th century. The current lighthouse is the second to be built on the rock, back in 1897, and is the highest in Ireland.

I had seen a few chose up photos of the lighthouse, and was always quite fascinated by I and getting a decent photo of it, so when I saw these boat trips out to it, I hardly wasted anytime in booking myself onto the first tour, which conveniently happened to be the week we were over. After getting back around midnight, I was exhausted after a long day from sunrise to sunset and headed straight to bed to pass out!

Yesterday morning after breakfast Uns and myself headed into Skibbereen to The Eldon and met up with Anthony and the boys to watch the third and final Lions test against the Wallabies. I think everyone was expecting a close game but landed up being quite a Lions dominated game with them winning by 41 points to Australia's 16. After the game it was back to the house to finish packing then dropped back in Skibb to catch the bus up to Cork.

Once in Cork we quickly grabbed a coffee near to the bus stop, then caught the airport bus for our flight beck over into Gatwick. Annoyingly, I landed up leaving my wallet on the plane (must've fallen out my pocket), so had to wait sometime for them to find it and return it. While waiting we 'met' Jill who had lost her passport while in the airport and boyfriend had already boarded - except it turned out she had her passport all along and pushed the boyfriend onto the plane. Clearly a long day drinking in the sun I'd say :) So at least that provided some entertainment while we waited, and glad I managed to get that back! From there, we caught the train beck home, after a nice chilled out week over in Ireland.