Beautiful golden light in the Mourne Mountains, County Down, as the recent cold weather comes to an end.

Ireland has in recent weeks seen days with low temperatures, as low as -9C - winter is well and truly here. 

But now, in a quick change, we have reached 11C - a change in some places of 12 degrees in 24 hours, 20 degrees in less than a week.

Autumn is upon us here in Ireland, we have passed the autumn equinox and now the length of daylight is shorter than night.

Last week I was photographing in County Roscommon at the inaugural Night and Day Festival which featured Irish and international artists - more to come on that soon.

This week I have been photographing in some woodlands in the Irish countryside, the weather was a little challenging but the workshop with NS from Virginia, a first time visitor to Ireland, went well as we covered long exposure photography and how to photograph colourful scenes.

Here we left the woodland to photograph along a wide, fast-flowing river to another section of colourful woods on the opposite bank. This is a scene that looks best in the autumn months.

Join me, Panoramic Ireland, to photograph Ireland's rivers, woodlands and countryside in autumn, winter, spring and summer.

This ash tree marks a little high point, a prominence at the entrance to a small enclosure, beside the ruins of an old stone thatched cottage.

Only a few of the foundation stones remain here, the cottage long since tumbled but this impressive ash, estimated to be 140 years old, still stands and was probably a young tree when the house was still occupied.

I have written about ash trees, known as fuinseog in Irish, before here on panoramicireland.com especially in reference to the disease that is currently making its way through the Irish countryside to destroy one of the most valued and characterful species on the island.

This poor ash might not see out its natural 300-400 year lifespan and end up like so many, a dendritic dead fossil of a once thriving ecosystem.

The Mourne Mountains are the highest and most dramatic mountains in Northern Ireland.

The Mournes sit some 35 miles south of Belfast and visible from parts of the city, most notably those views served as inspiration to CS Lewis for Narnia in his famous tales.

Composed mainly of granite the Mourne Mountains are rugged and peaky, crossed by many paths and surrounded by lush green countryside as seen here.

And of course, the Mournes are the subject of a famous song by Percy French called Mountains of Mourne.

The whole town of London stood there to look on

But for all his great powers, he's wishful like me

To be back where the dark Mourne sweeps down to the sea

Here in the image below, Slieve Donard at the highest point in the Mournes at 853m as the dark Mourne sweeps down to the sea under a sky filled with sunrays that would inspire any writer or musician, or indeed photographer.

Join Panoramic Ireland to photograph in the scenic landscapes of the Mourne Mountains and County Down.

The west of Ireland is one of Panoramic Ireland's favourite places to photograph, often the coast is preferred but sometimes, in cloudy conditions, the valleys of the ancient mountains are more scenic.

Here, in County Mayo, sunshine moves through the valley from the steep, rocky sides to the lakey valley floor.

Join me, Panoramic Ireland, to photograph in the west of Ireland.

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.

For the first time in a while I ventured back to one of my favourite locations for landscape photography today.

And, although the prevailing conditions were cloudy and windy, for a moment late afternoon sunshine broke through to illuminate the mountain ridge and enhance the red hues of the bracken and heather covered landscape.

Seven sheep are just visible, grazing the meagre mountainside.

Even in winter, in late January, the weather was mild with temperatures of 11C.

From a high vantage point in the drumlin country of County Armagh, I spotted a large plume of smoke heading into the atmosphere.

At first I thought it must be an industrial unit on fire, because of the sheer volume; this was no chimney fire.

As I descended to lower ground, I could see that it was coming from the direction of Newry, County Down, so I headed in the direction of the town and followed the dark skies close to main road.

Eventually I found a close place to observe and photograph the inferno.

July 2021 has brought some interesting weather to the island of Ireland with a new record for Northern Ireland set in Armagh at 31.4 degrees Celsius. Unusually for summer, Ireland has had warmer temperatures than neighbouring Britain for much of the month and a 'Tropical Night' was recorded when night-time temperatures didn't drop below 20C.

So far the hottest place has been Armagh with a recorded temperature of 31.4 Celsius on July 22nd 2021.

Known as the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland, with both the heads of the Catholic Church and Church of Ireland being based in the city founded by Saint Patrick in 444AD, Armagh sits in a drumlin belt (hills created by the movement of ice across the landscape) that stretches across Ireland from County Down on the Irish Sea to County Mayo on the Atlantic.

Here, overlooking the City of Saints and Scholars, both of Armagh's cathedrals dedicated to the patron saint of Ireland can be seen in the green landscape of the lush Irish summer countryside. In the distance the twin peaks of Sawel and Dart in the Sperrins - a mountain range running through Tyrone and Derry.

I have written about Slieve League or Sliabh Liag before, Ireland's highest mainland coastal cliffs.

This is one of Ireland's finest landscapes with its indented, steep cliffs constantly battered by the Atlantic Ocean hundreds of metres below.

Bright, golden light catches each of the rocky indents.

Join me, in 2024 and 2025, to photograph in Ireland's most scenic locations including Antrim, Donegal, Galway, Wicklow and Waterford.