Tag: caves

Re-launch of Caves of Ireland website!

Posted on by rom82 in caves

I am pleased to present a newly reworked and improved version on my website Caves of Ireland! The site, which initially started as a personal blog in 2014, quickly developed and, despite a period of recent silence, continues to attract large numbers. With over fifty thousand views and almost twenty thousand visitors, and a growing photographic archive, I have decided it’s time to re-lauch it.

Many hours of work have gone into making this possible. Every single photo, of which there are about 300, was re-stamped, resized and very many were re-edited. All of the text has been revised, and many old items removed and new ones added. New entries are being worked on at present.

The most immediate change that will be noticed is the overall appearance of the site. For this I am extremely grateful to Becks Kelly who, in large, redesigned the entire site. Her work has given it a neat consistency, a greater ease-of-read and a really smart look.

Oweynagat: The Cave of Cats, Roscommon

Posted on by rom82 in caves

These photos are from a trip to Oweynagat Cave in County Roscommon last summer. It is somewhat a different theme from usual as this cave is of much archaeological and folkloric significance. I hope you enjoy!

Click here to go to the page

Barton’s Hole, County Sligo

Posted on by rom82 in cave, mine

My latest entry, Barton’s Hole, is an anomaly for being both a cave and a mine. Read the article here! Enjoy!

A Selection of Recent Photos

Posted on by rom82 in caves

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:

Peter Bryant’s Bullock Hole

A flying visit to Pollnagossan produced this photo, of which I am quite pleased. I have updated the page also:

Trench Hall, Pollnagossan

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

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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:

Cascades final

Carrickbeg Rising, County Fermanagh

Posted on by rom82 in caves

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 🙂

Nice cave, nice company, nice day day out

Follow the link: Carrickbeg Rising

New Discoveries in North Leitrim

Posted on by rom82 in caves

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

A Swim in Arch Cave, Co. Fermanagh.

Posted on by rom82 in arch cave, caves

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

Beginnings…

Posted on by rom82 in caves

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 ‐ 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!:

Pollnagollum (Of The Boats), November 2012. Taken on Canon Powershot with inbuilt flash.

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!

Pollnagollum (Of The Boats), June 2014. Taken on Canon 450D with one flashbulb and one off‐camera electronic flash.

More photos from Pollnagollum (Of the Boats) can be seen here.