The Black Valley House

 On Day 6 of the tour we left Killarney and headed for Port Magee. We traveled on toward a photo stop in the Black Valley to capture images of the "Black Valley" house ruin.
The Black Valley in County Kerry, is a remote location in the Macgillycuddy's Reeks situated south of the Gap of Dunloe and north of Moll's Gap. The valley is also part of the Kerry Way, a walkers version of the Ring of Kerry beginning and ending in Killarney.
The valley is also noted for being the last place in Ireland to be connected to the electricity and telephone networks due to its remoteness. The connection happened in 1978.This is a location where Dan Sniffin had visited before and captured a stunning image of the house in the Black Valley. John Barclay wanted to visit this location, so we made the trip down a narrow ribbon of a road in the morning with amazing stormy light. The clouds were moving with great speed through the valley putting the house in dark light one minute and the next illuminating it as if someone had turned on the stage lights. It was wonderful to watch the light move through the valley and the scene. I loved this shot the most out of all the ones I made as the little ribbon of light in the back valley extended the line of the road into the image....while the line of the stone wall in the lower left brought the eye into the image and the clouds were awesome!It is easy to see why it is called the Black Valley. I also made a B&W conversion.

After capturing this shot, I hiked around a bit and went up the hill to the right of this image where I  found some scrubby trees that I thought had some character. I made a composition I liked and  waited for the  light to strike them. It was a beautiful place! So glad we made the trip into the Black Valley.

On the way out we had to walk a little way down the hill so the driver could negotiate a turn around with the bus. He was an amazing driver, patient and helpful and willing to make the venture into this difficult terrain.
The shot below was made as we waited for the bus to navigate down hill backing up to the pick up point. It will give you an idea of the road we traveled to get there, and this was the easy part!

On the way back through the valley we also made a stop at a beautiful lake with some lake boats pulled on shore. Across from the lake was another ruin. It was a great stop with super light!