Stone walls in Ireland are as old as farming, the oldest known to be those from Ireland's prehistoric farmers at the Ceide Fields in North Mayo which are approximately 6,000 years old.

Like any field enclosure they provide many uses: keeping cows and sheep in, keeping others out, delineating 'my land' from 'your land', but these stone walls also provide another useful function - they are dry built out of the local stone, in fact usually the stone from the very fields that they enclose. So by building the walls farmers are clearing the land.

And so the stone walls that one finds on travels in Ireland are local to that area. In County Down ( see image below) they are typically massive granite boulders, bigger than anywhere else and in Galway they are built of the abundant limestone.

A walk along Synge Street in Dublin.

Located just off the South Circular Road, beside Saint Kevin's Church and Portobello - Synge Street is a quiet and leafy street inside Dublin's canals.

In recent years it has featured in the Irish film Sing Street, a fine film set in 1980s Dublin that features the story of Conor Lawlor, his troubled life at a new school and his new found affection for Raphina (played by Lucy Boynton) whom he aims to befriend by starting a band.

Just to the right of the opening sequence is No. 40 Synge Street, where the character Raphina lives.

The film was directed by John Carney who also directed the Oscar winning film Once, Sing Street stars Aidan Gillen, Jack Reynor and Maria Doyle Kennedy as well as a host of new talent including Ferdia Walsh-Peelo who plays Conor.

Enjoy the short walk through the autumnal street.

Panoramic Ireland's Dublin Photo Tours are back up and running, find out more here.

July 2020 sees the return of Panoramic Ireland's photography workshops.

For the time being these will be run on a one-to-one or small group basis, with you and your friends.

Improve your photography, landscapes and seascapes on Ireland's fine coast.

Good news that Ireland will begin to open up from Monday 8th June 2020 but even better that Panoramic Ireland's photography tours will recommence at the end of the month, 29th June 2020.

With a little caution and our, as always, physical / social distancing keeps you safe with no big crowds and a safe, relaxed experience.

Join Panoramic Ireland to photograph anywhere in Ireland, from Fair Head to Mizen Head.

From June 29th onwards...

Perhaps in order to allow the good folks of South County Dublin to visit IKEA, the Irish Government today announced that restrictions due to Coronavirus / COVID-19 would now be relaxed to a county travel basis.

So, from 8th June Irish people can travel freely within their own county as if rural Ireland lives in some kind of GAA theme park - sure why would a resident of Limerick, situated right on the border of County Clare need to travel more than 20km into the neighbouring county?

Or indeed someone from Clonmel, the chief town of Tipperary and situated on the border with Waterford, why would they need to travel more than 20km into the mountainous county just across the River Suir?

Is it because the powers that be in Dublin think that residents of rural Ireland only operate, like in GAA circles, in some kind of tribal mindset where they whip out the Up Laois flags to celebrate being able to travel in some parochially patriotic fashion?

Scots pine or Pinus sylvestris is a native tree to Ireland, it grows tall and graceful with a reddish colour to its wood.

Here, in this abandoned farm high in the Irish mountains this Scots pine, planted a century ago, has fallen over and for many years has grown upwards from its reclining position supported by the old field boundary.

Sheep graze among the trees in the background underneath the rounded mountain summit above.

One of the few yellow ladybirds to be found in Ireland is the 14-spot ladybird Propylea quattuordecimpunctata which, like most ladybirds, feasts on the gardener's enemy - aphids.

Here, seen walking around looking for dinner this charming ladybird is sure to make anyone growing fruit and vegetables happy.

Also known as ladybugs in North America, the Irish name for ladybirds is Bóín Dé which translates as 'God's little cow' - quite a pleasant name for this little beetle.

The old farmhouse sits, slowly decaying amongst trees planted by former inhabitants of this bleak place; in an almost treeless landscape in the Irish mountains.

I visited on a recent sunny afternoon, the fine cut sandstone absorbing late day sunshine colour, grass slowly subsuming those stones fallen onto the ground in a gradual softening and reclaiming of the man-made scene.

Here, the only shade in the entire mountain range was to be found under these lush green leaves as a strong westerly wind whistled past.

Panoramic Ireland's photography tours aren't running just yet but will return soon, join us for a photography workshop in summer 2021 here in Ireland - in Dublin, the Antrim Coast, Galway and beyond.

Keep up to date here:

Nature is strange, here I was marvelling at the allium flowers just opened, and thinking about photographing them, when I spotted what at first appeared to be ladybirds of some kind.

But they were unlike any ladybird I had ever seen, they were brown, white and yellow without spots and not particularly shiny.

It isn't well known but the founder of Argentina's navy was an Irishman, and not a descendent of Irish immigrants to the South American country but he left Foxford in rural County Mayo in Ireland's west when he was just nine years old in 1786.

After many years at sea on the US Atlantic coast, he worked up to the rank of captain before being press-ganged by the British Royal Navy. The Royal Navy were engaged in attempts to block the USA from trading with France with whom the British were at war.