It's winter now and my mind turns to coastal landscapes.

Here, one from the Antrim Coast of Sheep Island.

Crashing waves batter both sides of the small island, for millennia a well known landmark off this part of the Causeway Coast but now more famous from its appearance in HBO's Game of Thrones.

Sheep Island rises some 30 metres above the North Atlantic with mostly sheer cliffs, a thin layer of soil on top gives a green colour particularly in spring. In centuries past, local farmers would graze sheep out here being able to land only on the calmest of days.

Some doubt that landing a vessel here with sheep is possible, but on a calm day and good local knowledge this would be a difficult, but not impossible, task.

Sheep Island is home to a large proportion of Ireland's population of the northern European sub-species of cormorant and is a protected habitat.

You can just see the coast of Scotland, faintly on the horizon under the grey cloud to the right of Sheep Island in this image.

Carrickfergus Castle was begun by John de Courcy in 1177.

De Courcy was an Anglo-Norman knight who came to Ireland at the behest of Dermot MacMurrough, King of Leinster, who sought the English King Henry II's help in becoming King of Ireland.

With no inheritance in England due, no lands and title - de Courcy set off from the southeast of Ireland to the north, and effectively defeated any opposition in County Down and County Antrim. Thus begins a turbulent millennium of English involvement in Ireland.

A storm rolls in from the northwest, across the North Atlantic towards the Sea of Moyle and in the distance the islands of the west of Scotland - Islay and Jura amongst others.

In the foreground sits Rathlin Island, one of the largest islands off the coast of Ireland.

The last warm colour of the evening's daylight fades as deep cloud fills the sky and rain obscures the horizon.

The Sea of Moyle sits between the northern part of Antrim, known as Moyle and stretches across to Scotland at the Mull of Kintyre. It forms part of the North Channel, that part of the Irish Sea north of the Isle of Man to the north coast of Northern Ireland, where the Irish Sea meets the open Atlantic again.

Interestingly the North Channel was the scene of the first success by the United States Navy under the command of John Paul Jones and his ship the USS Ranger against the HMS Drake in 1778. A battle almost took place in Carrickfergus before both ships met again a few days later in the East Antrim town on the 24th of April. Jones and his reluctant crew, in it for the money but not glory, successfully defeated HMS Drake after blasting the sails and masts to slow it down. The British ship had superior numbers but was poorly crewed and its guns were not in good working order.

John Paul Jones was from Scotland and along with Commodore John Barry from Wexford in Ireland is considered a founding father of the United States Navy.

The Sea of Moyle, as seen in the above image, was the location of one of the three places where the Children of King Lir were banished to live as swans for 300-years by their evil stepmother - a famous story in Irish mythology.

Join me, Panoramic Ireland, to photograph the scenes, seascapes and landscapes of the Antrim Coast, Wicklow, Galway and all points in between.

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.

Few autumn landscape scenes can be more alluring to the photographer than a woodland stream with waterfall.

Here in Tollymore, one of Northern Ireland's most scenic forest parks, these elements combine beautifully at the beginning of autumn as water falls between the stepping stones on the River Shimna under a canopy of bright green gently beginning to fade towards the reds, yellows and browns of autumn.

No wonder then that the producers of Game of Thrones, HBO, chose this location to film some of the famous TV show, Northern Ireland being home to most of the filming.

And no wonder it is a place that Panoramic Ireland visits often, when travel restarts why not join me at the famous forest park or along the coast of County Down close by.

Although Saint Patrick's Day has been all but cancelled this year, 2020 due to what we all know now as COVID-19 or the coronavirus, it is still possible to see and enjoy the sights of Ireland.

Today I visited Saint Patrick's Catholic Cathedral in Armagh, Ireland's ecclesiastic capital.

It's a fine structure, rising high on one of Armagh's seven hills and visible from the countryside all around the small city with its 64m high spires projecting off the lofty position opposite Saint Patrick's Church of Ireland Cathedral.

Begun on Saint Patrick's Day in 1838 after Catholic Emancipation of 1829, the cathedral was designed in the perpendicular gothic style but work stopped after the Famine in 1847.

Situated in the corner of County Tyrone, Northern Ireland's largest county, the remains of Harry Avery's castle sit atop a hill on the edge of a valley.

The twin structures projecting up here were actually an unusual tower house rather than an outer defensive gatehouse.

Belonging to a 14th century Irish chieftain it was destroyed in the early 17th century by English forces who took stone from the site.

This scene reminded me of another castle, more famous, from my own County Antrim which I also photographed with a cow in front: https://panoramicireland.com/photo-tours-blog/cow-in-front-of-dunluce-castle-causeway-coast-antrim-northern-ireland

The Sperrins are Northern Ireland's most extensive upland area, the mountains are very low reaching only 678m at Sawel with very little prominence.

Here they are seen at sunset with bright golden winter sunlight under a fine sky.

This is an isolated area, often cut off by winter snows and with almost no public transport but few people live in the Sperrins.

Landscape photography is a fine pursuit; much like the angler will appreciate the solitude, or camaraderie, to be found on a riverbank or lakeside so too the landscape photographer enjoys an evening out on the coast surrounded by nature.

Here is no exception, the famous basalt columns of Northern Ireland's world-famous World Heritage Site Giant's Causeway had done their work for the day and the last feet had been lifted off these natural regular-sided stepping stones.

It's a bright and colourful time of year, autumn. Sunny days have fine, clear light and the colour of autumn foliage makes any journey into the countryside colourful.

Six months since my chemotherapy finished it is exhilarating to be back in the countryside photographing the colour of another fine autumn.