Rathlin Island – Michael Stephen Wills Photography

On Torr Road

Facing Views and History

April 24, 2023April 27, 2023 MichaelStephenWills10 Comments

A grand view presents itself throughout the roll down Torcorr into Coolranny townland. Loughan is a shallow bay along the North Channel of the Irish Sea, a rocky sand beach is accessible via a slope shallower than the cliffs on either side. This access is a reason for the tiny rural community on the slope above, now a site of ruined cottages, abandoned during the emigration from Ireland, a flight continuing into the Twentieth Century.

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See this post for a description of wildflowers flowering here in the month of June.

This photograph from the bottom of the Torr Road hill takes in Coolranny Townland. a slice of land running from the ridge to Loughan Bay. We see a number of hawthorne trees in flower, yellow flowering Whin Bush, houses and the Roman Catholic church Saint Mary’s Star of the Sea.

Tor in Irish is a steep rocky height. Likewise, Corr means odd, uneven, rounder, convex, curved, peaked, projecting, smooth. Combined Torcorr is the townland where we stopped on the Torr Road, halted by our wonder at this sight. In the distance, Torr Head projects into North Channel, the closest land to Scotland. Following the coast, the cliffs in front of Torr Head is home to numerous sea birds. The curved bay is named Loughan, the rocky sand beach are ruins of cottages emptied by Irish emigration. The white building is Saint Mary’s Star of the Sea Roman Catholic Church. County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

View of Coolranny townland with Saint Mary’s Star of the Sean Roman Catholic Church from Torcorr townland, Torr Road . County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

The photograph of the header, taken by Pam, is from either Coolranny or Loughan Townland, looking across a sheep pasture, the North Channel of the Irish Sea toward the Mull of Kintyre, Scotland just twelve miles distant.

Here is a slideshow of this post’s images. To visit from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.

Tor in Irish is a steep rocky height. Likewise, Corr means odd, uneven, rounder, convex, curved, peaked, projecting, smooth. Combined Torcorr is the townland where we stopped on the Torr Road, halted by our wonder at this sight. In the distance, Torr Head projects into North Channel, the closest land to Scotland. Following the coast, the cliffs in front of Torr Head is home to numerous sea birds. The curved bay is named Loughan, the rocky sand beach are ruins of cottages emptied by Irish emigration. The white building is Saint Mary’s Star of the Sea Roman Catholic Church. County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Torr Head Stories III

Neolithic Passage Tomb

October 19, 2022October 13, 2022 MichaelStephenWills

Taking in a flower meadow, foreground, coaster sheep pastures, the photograph, below, looks north from Torr Head. The high hill, midground, is Greenanmore, notable for a the largest passage tomb of the Antrim Glens. Locally known as “Barrach’s Tomb,” for the Red Branch knight of the 1st Century AD fort on Torr Head, tree ring research of the mid-20th Century dates these tombs in the neolithic The hilltop passage tomb was an ancient relic when the mortar of Barrach’s Torr Head fort was drying.

When I enlarge the original photograph, visible on the ridge is a decommissioned Cold War listening post, the tomb is near that. The distant land across the North Channel water is Rathlin Island.

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Click me for the first post of this series.

Copyright 2022 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Torr Head Stories II

Ancient Castles and Raithlin Island

October 17, 2022October 11, 2022 MichaelStephenWills6 Comments

Knights of the Red Branch appear towards the end of “Deirdre and the sons of Uisneach”, a tale from 1st century AD Ireland, as protectors of the lovers Dierdre and one of the sons of Uisneach, named Naoise. The two fled to Rathlin Island, seen in the distance in the following photograph.

From Rathlin Island they passed over the Irish Sea to Scotland where they lived happily for a term of years.

Click me for an earlier Torr Head post “A Bit About Torr Head.”

Barrach’s fort no longer exists, a Coast Guard Station was built over the site. There are other intact ruins on this picturesque coast. Here is one close to the Giant’s Causeway, Dunseverick Castle.

Copyright 2022 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Torr Head Stories I

Mysterious Barrach, Knight of the Red Branch

October 15, 2022October 11, 2022 MichaelStephenWills18 Comments

Torr in Irish is a steep rocky height. Likewise, Corr means odd, uneven, rounder, convex, curved, peaked, projecting, smooth. Combined Torcorr is the townland where we stopped on the Torr Road, halted by our wonder at this sight.

In the distance, Torr Head projects into North Channel, the closest land to Scotland. Following the coast, the cliffs in front of Torr Head are home to numerous sea birds such as Fulmars (family Procellariidae) nad Oystercatchers (family Haematopodiadae). Along the rock beaches next Eider Ducks (genus Somateria). You might see the Common Buzzard (species Buto buteo).

Click photograph for a larger view. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.

Click me for an earlier Torr Head post “A Bit About Torr Head.”

In the following photograph Torr Head seen from immediately above. I stand on the ancient site of Barrach’s fort, a knight of the Red Branch. After some internet research I cannot find another reference to this knight, other than the information placard on Torr Head.

Copyright 2022 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Torr Head Wildflower Meadow

can you see any other flowers/plans in this photograph? Please leave a comment if you do.

October 7, 2022October 4, 2022 MichaelStephenWills15 Comments

We parked below the Coast Guard station, headed toward the height of Torr Head. I was stopped in my tracks by the hillside meadow wildflower profusion.

Here are a few I identified, listed by common name: Bluebell, Daisy, Meadow Buttercup, Sea Campion, Yarrow. We love daisies and buttercups around home. We spotted Sea Campion on the Dingle Peninsula, as well. Yarrow is common through Ireland. I don’t recall seeing bluebells anywhere else.

It was the bluebells in this photograph that clued me into why I took a photograph of the hillside. The view north takes in coastal sheep pasture looking on a portion of North Channel and the Irish island Rathelin.

The web page I used for identification was wildflowersofireland.net . Great information and links to the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland with a distribution map.

Copyright 2022 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

A Bit About Torr Head

the information board is not to be outdone

October 6, 2022October 4, 2022 MichaelStephenWills11 Comments

Twenty five minutes before the photos of Pam on Torr Head we enjoyed this view from high above. The placard captures and explains a great deal.

There is at least one tanker ship traversing the North Channel. You can just make out the Torr Road we followed through those farm buildings to the parking near the Coast Guard Station.

Informational Placard near Coast Guard Station

Here is a post published last year with more views of this coast.

Here is a gallery for easier flipping between photographs. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.

Copyright 2022 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

View South from Torr Head and North from Torcorr Townland

Facing Views

March 13, 2020February 28, 2020 MichaelStephenWills10 Comments

Standing on Torr Head the sights, every direction, overwhelmed the senses. With the camera I was able to capture views even today are coming into my understanding.

In this view south, Torcorr Townland coastal ridge runs down to the North Channel at Runabay Head. There are two bays, the nearest Portaleen Bay, between the dark, unnamed, point and Runabay Head is Loughan Bay.

Click photograph for a larger view. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.

See this post for a description of the foreground wildflowers.

Tor in Irish is a steep rocky height. Likewise, Corr means odd, uneven, rounder, convex, curved, peaked, projecting, smooth. Combined, Torcorr is the townland where we stopped on the Torr Road, halted by our wonder at this sight. This photograph looks toward the vantage from which the previous photograph was taken, Torr head.

Looking toward Torr Head from Torcorr Townload, across Loughan Bay

In the distance, Torr Head projects into North Channel, the closest land to Scotland. Following the coast, the unnamed point in front of Torr Head is home to numerous sea birds such as Fulmars (family Procellariidae) nad Oystercatchers (family Haematopodiadae). Along the rock beaches next Eider Ducks (genus Somateria). You might see the Common Buzzard (species Buto buteo).

The curved bay is named Loughan, above it are ruins of cottages emptied by Irish emigration.

Here is a slideshow of this post’s photographs. To visit from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page. .

Copyright 2020 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Torr Head Crooked Horizon Problem 4

What solutions do you see? Please post your solutions in comments. Thank You

March 12, 2020February 28, 2020 MichaelStephenWills4 Comments

A third technique to solve a tilted horizon, first described this post, is the counterpoint to the second technique and a variation of the first technique. Instead of building out, this solution is to crop the blank space also removing a portion of the image.

Here is a Photoshop screen capture from just before the crop is executed. The grid of fine lines is the Crop tool. For example, on the upper right corner a portion of Rathlin Island, the water, a slice of land are removed along with the blank portion.

Note from the Photoshop screen capture, the blank space along the upper margin is NOT removed. To do so will ruin the composition, the top of the hill on the upper left would be removed. Instead, I used the second technique to copy the sky over the blank portion left after cropping.

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The second solution post describes how copying content onto the blank space can cause duplication of image features. In the above example, I need to perfect the image, modifying the clouds OR perfect the copy process to avoid the duplication.

The end result is a view of wildflower meadow, foreground, coastal sheep pastures running up the high hill. Named Greenanmore, the hill is a site notable for a neolithic passage tomb. The distant land across the North Channel water is Rathelin Island.

See this post for a description of the foreground wildflowers.

Here is a slideshow of the corrected images of this series. To visit from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.

I worked around the crooked horizon, cropping to the wildflower meadow.

Torr Head Crooked Horizon Problem 3

What solutions do you see? Please post your solutions in comments. Thank You

March 11, 2020February 28, 2020 MichaelStephenWills6 Comments

Click photograph for a larger view. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.

Another solution to the crooked horizon is to level, crop, and build out the lost portions, as I did here. Very time consuming….better to keep the horizon level in the camera, difficult for me to remember.

Here is the second approach to correction of the tilted horizon problem that was first described this post.

A time intensive technique is, after straightening the image, to build out the blank sections. Here is an image after straightening. Corrected image size increases with degree of tilt, measured by the degrees of correction with the area of size increase being blank. It is this blank space that is filled by this technique.

The technique is to open a copy of the image, leaving the original unchanged, then, with Photoshop Lasso tool, select a portion to copy to clipboard, then to the blank space. A great deal of time is consumed by the trail-and-error approach required.

The sky was the simplest, the cliffs most difficult. The grass and flowers were not a difficult as they first appear. I varied feathering with sky the highest (30 pixels), grass and flowers at 10 pixels. Another general maxim is to run the lasso line through pixels the most similar to each other. After pasting use the Move tool to place the new layer.

A common effect to avoid is duplication of image elements. For example, after copying there are duplicates of flowers. This can be corrected through use of the Erase tool to reveal original image elements under the copied layer.

The cliffs on the upper left were impossible to correct. I solved this corner by running the Lasso line through the sky, water and grass. As a result the space between Rathlin and the “mainland” is wider.

See this post for a description of the foreground wildflowers.

Here is a slideshow a straightened, uncorrected and straighted, corrected images. To visit from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.

Taking in the foreground, I neglected to maintain a level horizon. Leveling the image results in too much cropping. View from Torr Head, north.

Torr Head Crooked Horizon Problem 2

What solutions do you see? Please post your solutions in comments. Thank You

March 10, 2020February 28, 2020 MichaelStephenWills5 Comments

Click photograph for a larger view. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.

Here is one approach to correction of the problem described in my last post.

In Photoshop, make a copy of the file and crop out reference to the crooked horizon. In this case, my focus is the wild flower meadow. The raw image was large enough leave enough pixels for a usable image.

A portion of the ocean water was filled in using a technique I will explain tomorrow. See this post for a description of the wildflowers.

Here is a slideshow a straightened, uncorrected and straighted, corrected images. To visit from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.