Just off the track through the snow, I found tracks and what looked like a good spot for a photograph so I headed up slope and into the deeper snow.

Only a fox had been through this part of the mountains since snow blanketed the heathery hillsides with fine, deep white powder.

I wandered for a while, photographed and spent time listening to the sounds of nature.

Exploring Ireland is filled with moments like these and other countless, priceless moments that make a visit to the Emerald Isle so special.

Join me to photograph in the snow, on long summer evenings, with autumn foliage or spring greens.

Saint Valentine, the 3rd century Italian martyr whose feast day is celebrated on the 14th of February is not commonly associated with Dublin, yet his remains are housed in a reliquary shrine in the Irish capital.

How did this come about you might well ask, he was unlikely to have visited Ireland in his lifetime.

Some snow in the Irish mountains, I knew that winter wasn't over yet back in January.

After quite an adventure where the roads were snowbound today, having to reverse down a mountain side as progress was non-grippy, slippy and, in the end, impossible.

In fact the car ahead of me had already run into troubles on the steep incline, there were patches of compacted snow and ice across the road, particularly where sunlight hadn't reached over the past few days, after all I was climbing up the northern slopes of the mountains.

Dublin's Forty Foot is a famous swimming location, perhaps one of the most famous in the world, attracting the likes of Loudon Wainwright III when he visits Ireland and thousands of locals on Christmas Day each year.

Despite the name, the Forty Foot is not home to waves forty feet high, nor is the water forty feet deep. The Forty Foot was home to the British Army's 40th Regiment of Foot, hence the name Forty Foot or 40 Foot.

Anyway if it was forty feet deep we would have to rename it to "The 12.2 Metre" or "The Twelve Metre".

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Here is one of my videos made at the Forty Foot on Christmas Day 2018, when thousands of people turn out to swim in the cold Irish Sea, many for charity and good causes but also for a challenge and some fun.

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