Travel to Ireland remains challenging at the moment, although the country has dropped any mandates in relation to COVID-19 and Coronavirus, it is now the problems with actually getting you or your bags to Ireland.

Every day the newspapers are full of stories of international travellers and those returning home who have arrived but their bags have not.

This actually happened to a recent visitor who spent time here with Panoramic Ireland; JL who arrived from the USA via Edinburgh into Belfast.

JL arrived with a slight delay, five minutes so not too bad, but his baggage, as well as half of the flight's baggage, did not arrive.

I have written about arriving in Ireland before, both by sea and by air.

There is no doubt that arriving into Dublin, despite all the recent issues with international travel, is one of the scenic experiences of any airport in the world.

Here is Lambay Island, a small island off the north Dublin coast, the headland of Howth seen in the distance jutting into the Irish Sea with Rogerstown and Malahide Estuaries.

Looking south over County Dublin and the city's airport, note the sand and sediment being transported by the Irish Sea's waves along the coast.

Book your trip to Dublin.

A fine summer sunset greeted me on a recent visit west. Colour filled the sky after the late evening sun set and only the sound of birds and lapping waves could be heard.

A busy few weeks for Panoramic Ireland covering various parts of Ireland including Dublin, the Antrim Coast, Connemara and Dingle.

Join me here in Ireland to photograph summer sunset scenes such as seen here, or later the beautiful autumnal Irish landscape.

Contact me to find out more.

It's a busy time for Panoramic Ireland at the moment, the long summer days see me busy leading photography tours and workshops in Ireland.

I have also been photographing a lot of music concerts, but on a rare quiet evening after photographing for a client I made my way to one of my favourite places to photograph.

Here, stone circles and alignments sit amongst long grass and wildflowers as the June evening sun begins to set.

It was a fine evening, alone in the countryside with only birds and the sound of the wind to disturb the silence.

Although we are close to midsummer, there are still plenty of fine summer evenings like these to photograph in Ireland for 2022. 

Join me to photograph in places like this or in urban Dublin, Belfast, Cork.

For availability check out the booking pages on the site or send me an email with your dates, places and interests.

The fulmar Fulmarus glacialis is not a native bird to Ireland, although it is now resident here all year round having first been recorded on the island in 1911.

It is similar in size to a seagull but is a member of the tubenose family or procellariids, more commonly known as petrels.

It spends much time gliding, as it was when I photographed it here, using little energy to ascend and descend then flying low over the surface of the ocean - a common trait of petrels. Indeed the fulmar is related to albatrosses.

Each year the fulmar will return to the same ledge on the same cliff and will often mate for life. It lives for over 40 years and is a pelagic feeder of any type of fish.

The upper feathers are grey with brown feathers often visible, though most guides fail to mention these they are very evident in the image above. Undersides are white and the fulmar has a distinctive blue portion of the nose.

The fulmar is one of Ireland's fascinating seabirds, fantastic when seen in flight.

The weather has been marvellous over the past week in Ireland, although some cold air has arrived to bring frost but at least no snow.

Here, on a journey through one of Ireland's most scenic counties - Tipperary, I drove along the scenic road to a famous viewpoint known as The Vee to photograph the view of the Galty or Galtee Mountains.

The Galty Mountains reach a height of 917.9m and are Ireland's highest inland mountain range, most of the country's highest peaks are much closer to the coast.

Panoramic Ireland is working on a project featuring the area, if you want to see more of this region of Ireland send me an email.

Little bunches of daffodils in a stone wall field in the west of Ireland.

Each bunch looks about the right size to make a perfect gift of flowers, ready to cut straight from the field. Daffodils are so colourful at this time of year.

Just out of sight some sheep grazed in the corner of the stone walls, keeping the spring green grass low amongst the daffodils. It makes a contrast to this image of a field full of daffodils.

At the end of March every year, 25th of March this year - 2022, sees the Irish Cancer Society's Daffodil Day where they raise significant amounts of money for their services, find out more about the Irish Cancer Society here.

Perhaps the sheep have a side line as florists, selling to passing motorists.

Join me, Panoramic Ireland, to photograph the famous scenes in Ireland and the not so famous places like this field of daffodils.

Sunset in the west of Ireland, the spring equinox occurred today March 20th, this sees the sun pass the equator and means that all places on earth effectively receive the same amount of night.

In Ireland, the days started to become longer than night on the 18th of March, a few days ago - this is known as the Equilux.

Here, a few moments before sunset on the equinox the bright and colourful sun edges towards the horizon to mark the official start of spring, even though meteorologically spring begins on the 1st of March and in Ireland, traditionally it begins on the 1st of February or Imbolc which is also Saint Brigid's Day.

At the moment daylight length is increasing by over 4 minutes per day, every day in Dublin although that rate of increase will begin to slow all the way to June 21st when the days will shorten again.

Of course, in Ireland seasons are not fixed and there is quite an overlap between winter and spring, we can still see snow and hailstones in April and heatwaves in February and March - one of which is predicted for the coming week.