The boys in our Ballinskellig hostel room
Baile an Sceilg to An tSnaidhme, Co. Kerry, Ireland - 31st July 2017
We're only in Ballinskelligs for a single night, but that still leaves half the next day to explore the castle and the old monastery ruins down on the beach. After that, we head up the coast to Sneem. On the first evening in Sneem, we meet up with Philly and Davida and glimpse one of the town's features - a real "ghost estate", or Eastát na Sí (Fairy Estate in Irish). Hundreds of such estates were built during the Celtic Tiger boom, where runaway spending with few controls saw no bounds to developer optimism. They were all swiftly abandoned when the financial crash of 2008 hit, which left around 23,000 houses on 620 ghost estates empty, without tennants or buyers. Many of them have now been demolished but Sneem's Pairc na Sonas remains for now, its one-decade-old buildings now being reclaimed by nature or cracking open where they are subsiding back into the bog that was hastily filled to build them on. The whole scene is powerfully apocalyptic in a "28 Months Later" kind of way.
next album: In The Sneem, An tSnaidhm, Kerry, Ireland - 1st August 2017
previous album: Liverpool to Baile an Sceilg, County Kerry, Ireland - 30th July 2017
Fred and Harry do Lego
The boys look at a sign about fishing
Ballinskelligs Castle on the beach
Someone's drawn a maze on the sand
The lifeguard hut
The low clouds cling to the mountain top
The boys run around on the beach
Harry and Fred near the castle
Isobel and Fred roam around
Isobel on the wall
Fred waves
Fred climbs round the outside of the castle
The landscape is split between sunshine and shadow
Ballinskelligs Bay
The remains of the castle keep
We walk around on the spit
Fred roams
Fred finds a seaweed snake skin
Loads of stripey caterpillars in a bush
Two people walk on the spit
Fred look for sea creatures
Fred and Harry find a sand-sculpture octopus
Down at the tourist information kiosk and café
A girl does cartwheels in the sea
Ramblers on the beach
The old Ballinskelligs Abbey
Ruined abbey remains
We look at graves for a bit
Ballinskelligs Abbey
Fred adds to a cairn
Harry poses on a breakwater
On the rocky beach
We see some nice views on the way to Sneem
A derelict cottage in the hills
We stop for a bit to look at stuff
The coast road
Isobel walks around
Harry as Spider-Man inspects some Hydrangeas
Dramatic mountain landscape
More scenery viewing
We've finally made it to The Sneem
The first glimpse of Pairc na Sonas Ghost Estate
More finished but empty housing
An old-school garage and petrol station
Cat and a wood-burner
Davida joins us for tea and biscuits
Table Cat
The houses in Pairc na Sonas are 70% off
The impressive view from the apartment window
The apartment car park
Harry, Isobel and Fern
There's a family gathering round Philly's
Fred gets a present at puts it on
The old shop next door
We have dinner at James and Harryana's apartment
Philly stands around
Empty ghost houses
Nature reclaims the estate's main street
There's a big pile of rubble on the street
Philly pokes about
The madness of new build derelict houses
The Sneem from up the road towards the Sneem Hotel
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The boys in our Ballinskellig hostel room
The boys in our Ballinskellig hostel room
Fred and Harry do Lego
The boys look at a sign about fishing
Ballinskelligs Castle on the beach
Someone's drawn a maze on the sand
The lifeguard hut
The low clouds cling to the mountain top
The boys run around on the beach
Harry and Fred near the castle
Isobel and Fred roam around
Isobel on the wall
Fred waves
Fred climbs round the outside of the castle
The landscape is split between sunshine and shadow
Ballinskelligs Bay
The remains of the castle keep
We walk around on the spit
Fred roams
Fred finds a seaweed snake skin
Loads of stripey caterpillars in a bush
Two people walk on the spit
Fred look for sea creatures
Fred and Harry find a sand-sculpture octopus
Down at the tourist information kiosk and café
A girl does cartwheels in the sea
Ramblers on the beach
The old Ballinskelligs Abbey
Ruined abbey remains
We look at graves for a bit
Ballinskelligs Abbey
Fred adds to a cairn
Harry poses on a breakwater
On the rocky beach
We see some nice views on the way to Sneem
A derelict cottage in the hills
We stop for a bit to look at stuff
The coast road
Isobel walks around
Harry as Spider-Man inspects some Hydrangeas
Dramatic mountain landscape
More scenery viewing
We've finally made it to The Sneem
The first glimpse of Pairc na Sonas Ghost Estate
More finished but empty housing
An old-school garage and petrol station
Cat and a wood-burner
Davida joins us for tea and biscuits
Table Cat
The houses in Pairc na Sonas are 70% off
The impressive view from the apartment window
The apartment car park
Harry, Isobel and Fern
There's a family gathering round Philly's
Fred gets a present at puts it on
The old shop next door
We have dinner at James and Harryana's apartment
Philly stands around
Empty ghost houses
Nature reclaims the estate's main street
There's a big pile of rubble on the street
Philly pokes about
The madness of new build derelict houses
The Sneem from up the road towards the Sneem Hotel