The Black Castle, Wicklow Head

Thanks to everyone who wished me well over the past couple of days. I'm feeling much better today. On the mend, is I think, the appropriate phrase.

One great advantage of having a wonky back is being woken up at 5am with enough discomfort to cause one to get out of the bed. I was greeted at that ghastly hour by a glorious sunrise which was duly blipped but you're not going to get it because by 9am I was painless again, wife fed and packed off to work and I am fund rummaging in a box containing my Cokin Filter collection, left overs from the wonderful world of film photography. I headed off to Wicklow, armed with three Cokin's and what do you get. You get a shot done with a flourescent, graduated blue on the sky. However I chickened out. It is very striking but the conservative in me just had to eliminate most of the sweet wrapper like colour, resulting in this.

The Black Castle was built by the Fitzgerald Clan in 1170 on what was then a small island just a stone's throw from land and facing out across the Irish Sea. It survived right through until 1640 when it was burned and sacked by the rival clans and has remained a ruin ever since. The gap between what was the island and the mainland has long been filled in and the site is now nicely landscaped and well kept.