Photo Diary: Strandhill, Sligo, Ireland

25 Mar 2016


At first I was like, I'll load all the photos into a blog post and then remove ones that look too similar or not as good as others and then I just decided to leave them all in cos effort and I like all the shots :P Plus it's my blog, I'll do as I please, mwhahaha! :D

Steve and I decided to go up to Sligo in October last year for a weekend to visit my aunt and her cats and have a wander around. Our first stop was Strandhill. A lovely little coastal village just outside of Sligo town. Once you get out of Sligo town it's pretty much a straight drive to the coast. We parked in a car-park just a couple of minutes walk from the beach itself. While in the car-park the above photo is your amazing view of Knocknarea! Knocknarea is a limestone hill and at the top is a large cairn which is believed to be a neolithic passage tomb that is believed to be Queen Maeve's resting place! Next time we visit I definitely would like to get to the top of it.



As we walked down past houses, some restaurants and pubs, you could feel the wind picking up and hear the sound of the waves.




I'm not used to being around the sea. I live in the midlands of Ireland and usually I might see it when I go to Dublin but never really go to beaches which I know has to change now.

You forget the great sound that comes from it and the sea air smell which is pleasant one moment and then smells like rotten eggs the next :P

The one thing we didn't predict was how bloody cold it was. I was lucky and brought my big warm coat and gloves but poor Steve nearly froze! He was wearing his own hoodie and a cardigan hoodie thing belonging to me. I would highly recommend to bring all the warm clothes with you all year round, even in summer just to be safe. 

It was fairly windy as well and the waves were crashing and some mist was being thrown into the air and carried by the wind. The drizzle ended up all over my glasses and camera lens! It luckily didn't affect the photos too much.









Steve being very majestic even though he was freezing all his limbs off. 



I couldn't figure out if I liked the colour or black and white better. I can never figure out which I prefer so you're getting both! 



I know it seems the shots got very repetitive but when I look at them you can see different waves and different colours on the rocks and I just couldn't leave any out.



As we were walking along, behind us the sun was starting to set and was hid behind some clouds with these amazing rays peering out.


A little girl was playing out by the rocks. I have no idea how she was able to walk over them so spritely because I struggled to walk over them! They were an awkward size for my boots!





I see you crow! There was actually quite a lot of crows about and I missed a great shot of them a bit closer! I wasn't fast enough.



The sun continued to set and turned everything lovely and golden.


I had to try it in black and white as well of course :P


When you turned around and had the sea at your back you had another lovely view of Knocknaera!


Now for some pictures of ourselves! Look at that poser Steve.





An accidental shot that came out cute.



Can you spot the helicopter?! You can even see it going by in the two last pictures of us both! It was one of those rescue helicopters and we hoped that it was out for practice and nobody actually needed rescuing.


Back to us! :D



Sick of us yet? Yeah me too :P


 We decided to walk as far as the square stone thing in middle of this picture to the right as it was getting way too cold to go much further.


Can you see the mist coming off the sea? We could feel it the whole time! 



Steve waiting for me to catch up.



We finally made it to the square thing which had a little pool in the middle with lots of rocks around it, we think it was some kind of drain.



I really loved the way the light was hitting the waves and rocks. It was so golden and shiney! 



Another break to see Knockarea in the distance.


Now for another few shots of the amazing sunset as we walked back. Don't let the sun fool you, it was bitter cold. My ears were hurting at this point!






We got there at a good time to have a little walk around in the daylight but then to enjoy the lovely sunset!
 


Just before leaving we hurried into a cafe along the beach before they closed and had some hot chocolate and peppermint tea to warm ourselves up. Steve was delirious from the cold as you can see above :P 





Shells Cafe was a nice place to stop into and get warm. Even though it was near closing time they had no problem with us getting warm before they closed. We also got some awesome baked pumpkin cheesecake to bring back with us. It was delicious. The interior was very cute and quirky as you can see from the photos above!


The sunset was amazing when we stepped back outside into the cold! It was so lovely though and I love how the photos turned out. 







And lastly from our lovely trip to Strandhill, Knocknarea hill with the moon above it.

Strandhill was so lovely and I can't wait to visit again, hopefully this summer in the warmer weather (Steve will be happy to hear that) and I'd love to walk a bit further along it as well.

Sorry for such an image heavy post but I really liked how it turned out with all of the photos in one place. It will be so nice to look back on it in future. I will have another post (I can hear you all so excited) about our trip to Rosses Point in Sligo, I have lots of photos but not as many as this you'll be delighted to know :P

I hope you enjoyed and let me know if you plan on visiting or if you've visited there before!

Thanks for braving this post! :D