Photos

This photo is towards the village of Stradbally from on top of the Rock of Dunamase, between Stradbally and Portlaois. This Corner of the old crumbled wall was once part of a large rectangular Norman keep on top of the rock (supposedly built by Strongbow) which was successively surrounded by a curtain wall incorporating several barbicans (towers), then the old dry-stacked stone wall of the early Christian Dun. It is an amazing place with a spectacular view above the plain of Laois. I liked the green fields and town in the distance, the tightly fitting stones in the old wall, and the twisted old tree growing beside it...as if it always had been there. It makes one feel young, and small in the grand scale of time that has passed.