Robert Mulraney is a speleologist, archaeologist and ecologist from Dublin. As a photographer, he is largely self-taught, with an interest going back to childhood. He shoots both digital and film, and is particularly drawn to low light photography. He captures a broad range of subject matters including night-time, flash, landscape and urban exploration photography.
He began caving in 2012 and started taking his camera into caves within a year. The challenging but rewarding nature of cave photography captivated his interest, and he began a basic cave photography website in 2014. Since then the project has seen a revamp with an equal emphases placed on Robert’s other love, that of writing. This can be seen in many website entries which contain original research on archaeology, geology, history, and folklore, in artciles not published elsewhere.
Outside of cave photography, Robert is a competent cave surveyor, whose surveys, maps and archaeological drawings have been published in numerous award winning and highly commended books. He has a active interest in history and folklore and his writings reflect his keen abilities to weave the various, and often contradictory, threads of place into a complete and coherent story.
Aside from numerous articles and papers, Robert is the co-author of two books:
Dowd, Mulraney, Bonsall: An Irish Civil War Dugout: Tormore Cave, County Sligo: Archaeology, History, Memory, (2024)
Bonsall, Dowd, Mulraney, The Six: The Lives and Memorialisation of Sligo’s Noble Six, (2022)
Prints of many of my photographs are available upon request.
awards and published works
Photographic Awards
Speleological Union of Ireland Photographic Competition, 2016:
1st and 2nd place in all categories, judged by Robbie Shone
Best Irish Photograph
Best International Photograph
Best Humorous Photograph
Speleological Union of Ireland Photographic Competition, 2019:
1st place in Best Irish Photograph
Geological Survey of Ireland’s Du Noyer Photographic Competition, 2015:
1st place winner in Irish category
UK Hidden Earth Caving Forum, 2015:
2 Merits
Geological Society of London, 2016
Winner
Geological Society of London, 2017
Winner
Published Work
Dowd, Mulraney, Bonsall, 2024, ‘An Irish Civil War Dugout: Tormore Cave, County Sligo: Archaeology, History, Memory’. Oxford: Archeopress.
Bonsall, Dowd, Mulraney, 2022, ‘The Six: The Lives and Memorialisation of Sligo’s Noble Six’, Sligo: Glencar Press.
Mulraney, Dowd, Bonsall, 2024, ‘Tormore: The strategic use of a cave dugout during Sligo’s Civil War’, in The Atlas of the Civil War, Cork: Cork University Press.
Books in which my work appears:
Dr. David Drew, Karst of Ireland, TCD, 2019
Dr. Marion Dowd, The Archaeology of Caves in Ireland, IT Sligo, 2015
Dr. Marion Dowd, Dr. Robert Hensey, The Archaeology of Darkness, NUI Galway, 2016
(back cover photo)
Graham Mullan, Caves Of Mid-West Ireland, University of Bristol, 2019
Helen Fairbairn, Ireland’s Adventure Bucket List, Collins Press, 2018
Geological Survey of Northern Ireland, Marble Arch Caves Global Geopark: Exploring the Landscape of Fermanagh and Cavan, 2016
Speleological Union of Ireland, Irish Spelelogy, various editions (No. 21, 22, 24; including front cover on latter two)
Irish TV, ‘Leitrim County Matters’, 2015.
Descent magazine (UK), Wild Places Publishing, numerous editions (No. 239, 245, 250, 255 [artist’s profile] 258,)
Underground (Ire.) magazines, numerous.
Mulraney, R. and Moran, J. (2016) An assessment of the Bunduff machair habitat and its utilisation by
wintering waders. Irish Naturalists’ Journal 35: 35-43.
WITH THANKS
Many many people have helped in getting this project and website to the stage it is at today. Every photo has had at least one other person help to take it and I am dependant on others to hold flashes and model, sometimes very uncomfortably, to get the photo. I would like to thank the caving community and its individuals for their continued help and support.
I would particularly like to thank members of Breifne Caving Club, with whom I first started taking photos. I would also like to thank Shannon Group for getting me out on the Leitrim hills to take photos hanging over dodgy potholes; with a particular shout-out to Muh, Bus and Aileen.
If you appreciate and enjoy my work, consider buying me a coffee!
Caves Of Ireland 