Project: 'The Burial Grounds of County Clare'

[Seoirse]

Running alongside my 'Safe Havens' project on Irish Harbours I also am looking at the way we in Ireland have treated our dead down through the centuries in a study on burial grounds in County Clare on the west coast.

The project will be lengthy as it involves not only looking at modern burial grounds and the re-introduction of crematoria but also the use of Dolmens, Passage Graves, Megalithic Tombs, and other places where some 3000-5,000 years ago the ashes of the dead were placed to ensure a favourable after-life.

What I intend to do is to place various examples here on this thread as the project progresses so that it keeps me on my toes and also will let Hasselblad Forum members have a preview of how the project is progressing.

I started taking pics on 8th April 2010 in a few of the older burial ground in the Miltown Malbay / Lahinch area.

First off... the pic below is of a leaning headstone in Kilfarboy Burial Ground.

 

[Seoirse]

The next pic is from Freagh (pronounced Frey) a very small burial ground overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The table stones in the foreground are so covered in lichen and worn by the weather that it is impossible to know who is buried beneath.

 

[Seoirse]

A couple more from this project.

First one is from Freagh and features one of just three stone crypts which are located in this burial ground of less than 1 acre and which looks out on the Atlantic. In Co Clare they built wonderful crypts from local stone and I will be supplying more examples of these later in the project.

The second one is from the delightfully named Cill Easpaig Fhlannain Burial Ground just north of Lahinch. The name has been anglicised to Killaspuglonane which helps most people to pronounce the name with some degree of accuracy but looking at the spelling it comes across as a bit 'clunky'. Anyway, I digress - the name Cill Easpaig Fhlannain means ...Four Masters, the church of bishop Flannan.

75mm Zone Plate on Hasselblad 503CW, Ilford HP5 13 mins Rodinal 1:50

 

[Seoirse]

Knockalassa Wedge Tomb

Been a while since I posted on this project.
However, I have now moved from 18th century burial grounds to look at the burial places from pre-historic times. Between 3,000 and 5,000 years ago the ancient peoples who inhabited Co Clare chose cremation as their way of sending off their deceased and would then place the remains within wedge tombs or cromleacs, court tombs, or portal dolmens. Typically the roofstones were sloped from South to West in the direction of the setting sun.

Knockalassa Wedge Tomb is located on the lower slopes of a mountain called Sliabh Callan near Miltown Malbay. By their construction Wedge-tombs come, æsthetically speaking, between Court-tombs and Portal-tombs: a little less compact and rather less striking than the latter; much more compact than the former. Their roofstones have not been chosen for their distinction, they do not have impressive portal- or jamb-stones, and they generally are not more than 1.5 metres high. They are called Wedge-tombs because they are taller and wider at the straight-façaded front (which always faces south-west) than at the back.

Hasselblad 503CW with 75mm zone plate (a type of pinhole)

Note: DO NOT ADJUST YOUR SCREEN...zone plates are meant to be soft!

 

[segedi]

Zone plate has been too soft for my liking, but you've found quite a good lot of subject matter of it. The ethereal quality and the warmth adds to your photos very nicely. Well done.

 

[Seoirse]

Zone plate has been too soft for my liking, but you've found quite a good lot of subject matter of it. The ethereal quality and the warmth adds to your photos very nicely. Well done.

Thank you so much for your honest and most welcome comments, Segedi.

Much appreciated.

 

[segedi]

Just saw your work on withoutlenses.com - very nice as well. Although I still the Burial Grounds project lends itself to Zone Plate perfectly, I think you are swaying me towards a great appreciation. And I have a ZeroImage 612F on the way, so who knows what will happen!

 

[Seoirse]

Porsoon Church

This is Porsoon Church & Burial Ground near Kilshanny Co Clare. Many old churches which had fallen into disuse or were abandoned were often used as extra space for burials and so one can often come across scenes such as this where grave stones fill the inner areas of what once would have contained pews, aisle and altar.

In this scene we are looking from what was the 'inside' out through the main entrance. The lovely cut stone is still very nice to look at although some bits and pieces have become dislodged and are lying around here and there.

I loved the light that was present on the day I visited as it was typically Clare light...bright yet muted and perfect for the purpose...to record burial places.

Hasselblad 503CW with 75mm zone plate (a type of pinhole)

Note: DO NOT ADJUST YOUR SCREEN...zone plates are meant to be soft!