Castletownbere...

Stayed in Bantry last night. There was music in the bars, but I wasn’t in the mood. Headed west this morning, along the Beara peninsula. I passed a lot of photogenic places, but the weather’s poor: dull and grey, with the lightest of drizzle. The landscape still looks beautiful; it’s just difficult to take saleable shots without some light to ‘lift’ the scene.

I’m parked up in Castletownbere, overlooking the harbour; though the town itself is small, it’s still a busy port. There’s a fleet of fishing boats in the harbour, some with Irish names, some French. No one seems to mind me wandering around. The mist is rolling in over the hills, but, hey, this is Ireland!

I’ve been here before. Joy and I did a tour of the West of Ireland about forty years ago in my little Triumph Spitfire, the only sports car I’ve ever owned. My memories of the trip are few, and almost certainly unreliable: the cliffs of Moher, the Lakes of Killarney, the Gallarus Oratory and Castletownbere, where I was fascinated by the bars. You’d go into a barber’s or a bicycle repair shop, and there’d be a dark little bar at the back, where men - and only men - would sit and talk and drink.

I’ll investigate the bars later on. In the meantime I have some writing to do…