A Photo-Journal Of The Irish Underground
I have updated the Pollnagollum page with a series of new photos. It’s been a while since I took photos here and the most recent ones were taken with the help of just one other caver. It took quite some time and patience on behalf of my helper. Also, a lot of vintage flashbulbs laid their lives down for these photos so I hope our efforts were worthwhile đ
Click here to see the new photos.
I have photographed another cave from in the Marlbank region of Fermanagh. This is a major river cave in the Marble Arch sytem. Enjoy! Follow the link to photos here.
Yesterday, myself and another caver from Breifne Caving Club visited Pollnagossan in Co. Cavan. It is a cave of contrasts with very neat and well decorated sections amid large mud chambers and tight wet crawls. Follow the link to see the new photos:
A new cave measuring at least 40m in depth has been discovered in County Cavan. Follow the link to read about it. Happy New Year to all my readers and let’s hope for plenty more new discoveries in 2015!
Recently I have taken a short and involuntary break from caving but have finally returned to it. So, I am happy to present photos of the brilliant Pol na Leprechauns in County Leitrim. I have never seen published photos from this cave and it is one I really wanted to photograph.
This was possible on recent outings with Shannon Group and their work is to be commended for pushing the exploration of the much neglected caving region of North County Leitrim.
It’s been a while since I made any updates but I have not been inactive, all the opposite I have visited a large number of caves over July and August and thus taken on a few more projects! The following photos come from such caves, hopefully I will have more to show soon.
Peter Bryant’s Bullock Hole. Unfortunately I had some epic gear failure here (as well as in Cascades) so I was unable to light up the massive chamber to the extent I wanted. However, my flashbulb guns are being operated upon and I hope to return soon and finish the job:
A flying visit to Pollnagossan produced this photo, of which I am quite pleased. I have updated the page also:
I have also added a new entry for Pigeon Pot and updated Boho. Other caves visited such Cascades and Peter Bryant’s Bullock Hole will have to wait to get their own entries until I have more to show!
Pigeon Pot
Boho Cave
I have numerous photos of Cascades Rising from two trips but I will create a page for it only when I take more photos that do justice to it’s final and beautiful stretch:
It being summer and all, another wet cave was knocked off the list, this time Carrickbeg Rising in County Fermanagh. Only a few pics to show from this short cave as I did not feel like getting my camera too wet nor did I like asking cavers to pose while threading water đ
Nice cave, nice company, nice day day out
Follow the link: Carrickbeg Rising
This weekend a joint effort by Shannon Group, Breifne Caving Club and Queens University Caving Club led to the discovery of a new 50 meter pitch on Largy in North Leitrim. The fantastic new pitch, found after a short dig through a gravel choked crawl, leads into a large chamber shared by a neighbouring pothole, Pollrunda and makes for and excellent through trip.
Click here to read the article and see photos from the trip
I have added a new page of photos from a trip to Arch Cave in County Fermanagh.
Follow the link here to see the article
I have always enjoyed taking photos and continue to take my camera with me most places I go. When I started caving it seemed natural to take my camera into caves as well, where I soon found it difficult to get decent photos. My first shots were on a manual compact camera using it’s built-in flash and displayed the typical cave photo scenario â lots of black spaces, bad focus and, most frustratingly, air moisture filling the entire frame. A good example of one of my very first cave photos follows, and this is of the ones I chose not to delete!:
I have made improvements by taking more lighting equipment underground, using a DSLR camera and transporting it all in waterproof boxes. Nearly all the gear I use for cave photography is second hand and bought cheap. Taking better cave photos does require familiarisation with certain technical aspects associated with flash photography, but for the most part it is relatively straight forward and the biggest difficulties are met in lugging gear around underground and cleaning it all after the trip!
More photos from Pollnagollum (Of the Boats) can be seen here.
Caves Of Ireland 