The Wild Atlantic Way Starts Here

If you have been following my adventures, you will know how much I dip in and out of the Wild Atlantic Way. With over 2500 km of roads hugging the coastline, passing through many stunning villages and towns, and revealing views upon views as you turn each corner, there really is no other place like it. For this week's adventure, I decided to head to where it all begins. The Old Head of Kinsale is an impressive headland that juts out from the bottom of Ireland into the Atlantic Ocean. However, it isn’t possible to walk along the stunning coastline or visit the impressive lighthouse at the very end, as years ago the land was sold to a private company, which set up the Old Head Golf Course, and no public access is permitted anymore. Given my vintage, I have been lucky enough to set foot on the land around it and explore this lighthouse many moons ago, and it is one impressive structure. There is now an open day in May every year where you can visit the lighthouse, walk within the walls, and even take the steps up to the light room if you want to experience it up close.

For this week's adventure, I decided to return to a spot I had visited years ago, armed not only with my wide-angle lens but also my monster lens, the Sigma 150-600mm. The reason was to try and get better photographs of the hundreds of seabirds that call the cliffs here home. As I took the short walk over to the adjacent headland, I started to notice some activity behind me—there were a lot of orange jackets and a lot of equipment being set up. It was the Coast Guard, who looked like they were either doing an exercise or a rescue. I hoped it was an exercise. However, it’s not difficult for somebody to fall over the edge of the cliff, as it is totally unprotected. I have seen on many occasions people arriving there to try and get that Insta selfie.

Not long into my short hike, I spotted some of the sea pink flowers, which acted as a great subject for my first image. As I set up the shot, I noticed two young guys who came along and stood at the cliffside in front of my camera, raising their arms in the air. This looked good in the frame as it added some scale, so I beckoned to them to hold their pose for a moment longer so I could get a shot and also told them that I would send them the image after I had it edited. This was a nice start to my shoot, and after getting another shot with the light caressing the cliffs, I wandered over to my preferred spot to begin scouting for compositions and to get a better view of the birds, who were very active below.

Now, I also noticed that the activity from the orange jackets had increased, and they were setting up supports and ropes. It seemed like they were about to abseil down the cliffside. So, I put on my long lens to have a closer look, and indeed, I was right. I could see they were hammering steel poles into the ground to act as support for the weight of the abseilers as they would descend down the cliffside. Still unsure at this point if it was an exercise or an actual rescue, I could also see a large congregation of people gathering on the cliffs next to the main area where they were setting up, possibly wondering what was going on. From my viewpoint, I had an angle that wouldn’t normally be seen either by the public or by the Coast Guard themselves, so I started to take some shots of them setting up and as they took their first steps over the edge of the cliff. The stretcher was introduced, and this made me think even more that something real was happening. Would I actually want to be taking photos of this?

The light that had greeted me was now swallowed up by a bank of clouds over the western horizon, making for difficult shooting conditions as I needed a fast shutter speed to capture the birds in flight. I wanted to be at 1/800th of a second minimum and would have preferred to be at 1/1000th of a second to fully ensure I could freeze the birds in flight. With the current light levels, the fastest speed I could get was 1/400th of a second, and the image still appeared quite dark on the back of the camera. So, I had to step outside my comfort zone and bring my ISO to a level that I wouldn’t normally do. 1600 was where I needed to be to get anywhere close to having a bright enough image and also freezing the birds. Thankfully, I knew that Lightroom's AI noise reduction would assist me in this case. The shots I took of the birds at 600mm were at the widest aperture I can get at that focal length on my lens, which is f/6.3 at 600mm. The birds were still small in my frame.

This is as rugged as it gets, with many sharp, razor-edged forms jutting out from the mainland. This is where the birds call home, and I would watch them leave in groups, head to the water, and then fly back to a very loud and shrieking reception from the other birds as they did so. The sound was fantastic, but would my shots be fantastic? There is a stack that stands alone with a large point on one side that is permanently a shade of white/grey due to the excrement that comes from its residents. This was my second area to focus on, and it also felt more comfortable because I had a subject to photograph, with the birds acting as the supporting cast.

Meanwhile, the two Coast Guard abseilers continued their journey down the cliff right above the main bird action. Perhaps the birds were more active due to their presence. The stretcher was also with them, but it seemed that they were not going all the way down the cliff. They had paused around 15 meters down from the grassy area they left from above. As I watched them and recorded some video of them, I then saw them commence their ascent back to the top and were greeted with a round of applause when they did so. Thankfully, it seemed this was just an exercise, and not a real-life rescue. I had managed to get some great shots and video footage of them as they did their exercises. Afterward, I headed over to let them know that I had taken images of them, so they could at least get a different perspective from ever before.

At this stage, the sun was about to set, and that bank of clouds had stayed there for almost the entire shoot. I never got any further blush of light onto the cliffs, which would have been great, but nonetheless, the shoot was still full of activity and things for me to train my camera on. I decided to wait to see if the clouds over the headland would actually catch any of the night light once the sun had finished its journey. I also popped back on my wide-angle lens to try and capture the entire scene. It ended up being quite subdued, but it was still a relatively nice shot as I had found a bank of yellow flowers to help anchor the image and remove most of the dirt that I would normally have had in my image to be able to capture the entire scene.

As I packed up my bags, I decided to head back over and, as mentioned, introduced myself to the Coast Guard and let them know that I had taken images of them. I met with Stephen and told him I would send him the images and video footage that I had captured of him as he abseiled down the cliff. Since then, Stephen has told me that these images have been fantastic as they hadn’t had that viewpoint before during their training exercises. I was glad I could help and also glad that I wasn’t witnessing a real-life rescue, which, based on the conversation I had with the Coast Guard and the height of the cliff, wouldn’t have had a happy ending, as the chances of somebody surviving a fall like that would be zero.

You can see the images I took from this shoot below, and you can watch it all unfold in the video on my YouTube channel, which I would love for you to join me on.

So, the next time you are on a road and see a sign that says Atlantic Way, or you see any of my images that are on the Wild Atlantic Way, you will now know where it all begins—the Old Head of Kinsale in Cork.

Thanks for reading, and for your continued support,

Darren