We pick up the story now in the late morning. Richard Watson has arrived to join the shenanigans and we are off for more exploring and adventure. Richard is a local photographer who I was lucky to have as a guest on my podcast in 2022 (The Irish Photography Podcast) to discuss a multi year project that he had created called Mourne. Richard had given himself a goal during covid to go up to the Mourne mountains many times during all types of weather and conditions to create a fantastic time-lapse compilation of this stunning mountain range as it changed through each season. He went there in the snow, camped overnight, lost a few tents along the way due to the strong winds, and in the end came back with what can only be described as a masterpiece and a fabulous snippet of time well spent chasing the light and conditions. I will link to his work below, but for now let’s continue with the story.

Richard lives just a few miles from where we were, and because of his local knowledge he brought us to a location off the beaten track: The Giants Head (as he called it). It was situated down a goats path on the side of the road and many have driven past it daily without even knowing it existed. Such a shame for them, but a bonus for us in that we had our local guide to take us down to see it.

The rock formation looks like a face coming out of the cliff side, and given that it is looking onwards towards the Giants Causeway it was aptly name by Richard. After a short hike down we were finally able to see it up close. It was impressive for sure; all we needed was some light, but given that it was almost noon and the sky was still thick with clouds, it was time for some more long exposures to smooth the water and give an ethereal feel to the location.

Diarmuid was on hand once again with his drone to capture some truly stunning vistas from the sea. You could even see the impressive Dunluce Castle up ahead, and given that drones aren’t allowed to fly around it, we were happy to avoid this rule by being far enough away to see it without falling within the boundaries.

Next it was time to meet up with the Legend Patrick “Paddy” Murtagh, and from the moment he arrived we became a foursome of photographers all happy to be having the craic and enjoy photography adventures for the remainder of the day. After a quick detour to pick up supplies for the evenings ahead (steaks and beer), we arrived for our sunset shoot location: the iconic Dunluce Castle.

Dunluce Castle (/dʊnˈluːs/; from Irish: Dún Libhse) is a now-ruined medieval castle in Northern Ireland, the seat of Clan MacDonnell. It is located on the edge of a basalt outcropping in County Antrim (between Portballintrae and Portrush), and is accessible via a bridge connecting it to the mainland. The castle is surrounded by extremely steep drops on either side, which may have been an important factor to the early Christians and Vikings who were drawn to this place where an early Irish fort once stood. (WIKI )

Our plan was to head down to the lower beach to shoot the castle from below and get some silky water as it flowed over the rocks in front, however it was quickly clear that our plan wasn’t going to be possible. There was a gate stopping us, and since the location is part of the national trust there was someone on duty who wouldn’t have taken kindly to us jumping the gate. Our plan was to wait until the tourists had gone and then take the route down, however a local ice-cream van which was parked there for a wedding was on to our plan, and when the security guard arrived we could see some rapid conversations and glances over in our direction, as if to say you guys aren’t going anywhere. This was disappointing to say the least as he hung around for what seemed like an eternity, and the time was pressing on without any sign of him leaving. We were well and truly blocked here.

Richard said we could head over to the adjacent headland and photograph the castle from there, so with bags on our back we decided that this was our only option and headed down the road. Upon reaching the field that would allow entrance into this area we could see and hear a jeep racing over towards us, so of course we stopped. The driver of the jeep was in fact the local farmer who owned the field, and after being tipped off by the friendly ice-cream van man, he was hell bent on stopping the only chance of fun we were about have. A quick conversation with him revealed that he would let us walk over but wanted to know if we were commercial photographers and if we were doing a wedding shoot. Now even Stevie Wonder could tell that four blokes dressed in outdoor gear with camera bags on our backs weren’t getting married any time soon, but he wanted to see if he could get his fifty pounds sterling from us for access. We managed to sweet talk him (well, Patrick did), as I wasn’t going to engage with this behaviour to be honest, and after a few minutes we were allowed to pass, although Gandalf would have been easier to convince.

After all that hassle it wasn’t even worth it; the light was flat, the waves were non existent and the shots were poor at best, nonetheless it was good to share this with 3 other photographers and see the icon with my own eyes. The last time I had been there was during the storm I mentioned in the earlier blog and we couldn’t even see the castle form the road, so to have somewhat clear conditions was good enough at the end of the day and a location to bank for the next time, albeit not from the perspective we had hoped for of course.

As darkness fell we headed off to find a location to park up for the evening, eat dinner, have some drinks, and shoot the s^%t, and it was then that Mr Watkins appeared :-) After a few beers I remembered that I hadn’t done an outro to my video from the evening and decided that I would at least record something, even if I wasn’t going to use it given that the evening’s adventure had been a bust. As I spoke with the grace of a US president Richards surname magically changed from Watson to Watkins and it was at that point I had to become Steve from out Scotland trip and call him this for the remainder :-)

It’s moments like this that stick with us for a long time; yes the photography can be great, but the craic and interactions that occur off camera last far longer. We continued to have a few more beers and then hit the pillows for the evening. It would be our last morning of this trip tomorrow and we were heading to the icon of icons, the mystical Dark Hedges for Sunrise.