Panoramio - Photo of Poulnabrone Dolmen on the Burren, Megalithic Tomb 2007

Marilyn Whiteley, on August 19, 2007, said:

Striking photo with perfect lighting! Excellent.

♫ Swissmay, on August 19, 2007, said:

Thank you very much, Marilyn! :-) Those were actually the last sunrays of the day! May

Ryan Calhoun, on August 19, 2007, said:

Beautiful shot, May. One of my favorites of yours so far! The sharp contrast really brings out the texture of the underside of the flat rock. The perspective from below makes the whole thing look much larger and heavier; and I think without the ropes and chains, we're more likely to expect knights coming over the hill than jeeps.

I know what you mean about uncomfortable positions. I have a few shots from flat on my back (usually with my feet going uphill) in my collection as well.

I hope you left yourself a few more extra-last rays of sun for the drive home...often the adventure doesn't really begin until after you think you're safe!

Borbély Tamás, on August 20, 2007, said:

Very nice picture,May!Nagyon szép kép,Margit! Greetings, Tamás

♫ Swissmay, on August 20, 2007, said:

Ryan, it's the absolute favourite of my pictures! You are right, in reality the Dolmen is much smaller than it seems to be in the picture, but for me and the story behind, it isn't any smaller than it looks - it's my Dolmen now, if you know what I mean. ;-) The Irish may forgive me. :-)

It was an odyssey to get here. During the day I came down from the North of Mayo near Sligo, it rained heavily nearly all day. I put my only priority on getting to this site before sunset. I had only about 47 Euros left and of course, like all other days, I didn't know where I would stay for the night.

In a little town I wanted to get some more money out of the automatic bank boxes, but they failed, though I had three credit cards with me. and the banks didn't help either, the only advice of them was, to take enough cash with me next time. I tried in vain at all the bigger places on my way, but the mischievous Leprechauns (kind of legendary Irish gobelins) didn't want to help me either. At a petrol station I didn't get any petrol, but a free coffee, which I dearly appreciated.

When I finally was about 50 km from this site, I got lost, the roads are all so similar and there was no signpost. I drove on and on and the evening got later and later. I didn't care where to find a bed, because this Dolmen had priority before everything else.

I got lost a second time and had one last try - there was no Dolmen in sight and I sadly knew that I had to give up - but this very minute I discovered it and was really happy ;-) I took pictures and meditated on the site and only when it got dark, I started to think about a B&B for the night.

Since the place ist remote and the roads are not the best, I went to the direction of Ballyvaughan, but missed the way again, because I wanted to use a short cut. Anyway, finally I got to Doolin and luckily I found a B&B with light on after 23:15 and a free bed, but too expensive for the cash I had left. But finally the Landlady agreed to give it to me for 45 Euros instead of 50. Since I was in Doolin, I had the urge to round up the day and to go to a Pub and to listen to some Irish music. The Guiness I ordered was 2.50. I met some nice people from the USA, exchanged addresses and finally went to bed with a hungry stomach, but happy with the pictures in my camera.

In the morning I literally scratched my last Cents together to pay for the room and went off with no money at all and with petrol left for about 50 miles in the little hope of finding a bank, which would be helpful and hand me out some cash on one of my credit cards.

No place to put my car in Ennis, the Market town. My last hope was the airport of Shannon. The helpful police let me put the car in front of the airport without paying and after an hours explanation and a long call to my bank at home on the expenses of the Irish bank I got the sum in Euro I wanted. With the last drop of petrol I got to a petrol station and food for the car as well as for me.

Actually I enjoyed the adventure, it's the salt in the soup, as we call it. Only once I wondered about the social system in Ireland and if they might give me a place to sleep and something to eat until I would find the means to get some money from home. ;-) since I am not really talented to collect money in making music and in spite of all the prejudices about the Swiss I can't even yodel. ;-(

I dismissed immediately the vague idea of selling the hired car and thus to find a bed and something to eat for a while in a jail. ;-)

Sorry about the long text, I will delete it, if anyone is annoyed and thinks, that this is a place to put pictures and no texts. But the "story" is actually connected to the picture above.

♫ Swissmay, on August 20, 2007, said:

Tamás, thank you very much for your nice comment!

Margit :-)

Ryan Calhoun, on August 20, 2007, said:

No, don't delete it! It's a wonderful story, and you told it very well. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and that's true in the sense you'd never describe the shape or the colors without the photo. But without your story it's just a curious monument on a hill. You've just given this flat photograph back its third dimension, with such a salt of reality that I feel like I was along for the ride. And now I see that the the beautiful light was a gift just for you, a greeting upon your timely arrival as a reward for the disappointments before. I already had given it a gold star, and now I wish I could give it two!

Marilyn Whiteley, on August 20, 2007, said:

Thank you so much for the story! I feel privileged to have been the first to comment on your photo, even though the simple comment fails to measure up to the photo and the story.

Cheers, Marilyn

♫ Swissmay, on August 20, 2007, said:

Ryan, thank you so much for your words and the double golden star ;)) they are an additional reward. I may not seem to be very humble, but I agree about the gift of light as a reward - not for the disappointment, but for the zeal I put into it getting there in order to achieve my vision. smile ;-)

Thank you Marilyn for your wonderful comment, and I really feel privileged to get your attention for this picture. Thank you, thank you both! May

A description of the Poulnabrone Dolmen can be found here.

Michael König, on August 21, 2007, said:

Thank you May for this picture and the wonderful story behind it. I can literally feel how you didn't care for your empty stomach, your empty wallet and your empty fuel tank before you've reached the dolmen.

I do share this obsession placing the object of desire above all bodily needs ... but my travel companions usually didn't, so i sometimes had to use all my persuation skills ("yes, we're right there, it's just two minutes from here" when i actually had no idea where we were ...) in order to hold down mutiny before we reached my destination ;-)

So, i really enjoyed your photo, and even more, your story. Go on like this :-)

Greetings from Berlin, Micha

Hi May, interesting story and a very nice photo! Maybe you can show us the postion in Google Earth, so we don't have to search such a long time as you did :-)

Greetings from Bonn, Wim

♫ Swissmay, on August 21, 2007, said:

Thanks Wim, :-) Sorry, offensichtlich hatte auch hier das System versagt. Ich werde die ganze letzte Serie nachpositionieren müssen. May

♫ Swissmay, on August 21, 2007, said:

Thank you very much Micha!:-) I only discovered your post now. Oh, yes, it sounds very familiar to me ;-) I do know, how persuasive one has to be sometimes and often one has to find a compromise. I would have had to give in in a situation like I was, nobody would have accepted not knowing where to sleep and no meal to wait. Whenever I take someone with me, I have to forget about really taking pictures, because as you and maybe all know here, you can't take good pictures, if someone wants to get lunch at lunchtime and have a booked bed and more such unimportant things.;-)

I quite love travelling on my own, I can stop wherever I want, I can take the worst road, because of my expectation, that behind the next bend will be a wonderful view or probably the best subject ever waiting for me which I will never see again. People with me would have rightly grumbled or objected, when I turned round and went back for 7 km in heavy rain, because I couldn't forget about a beautiful and unique thatched cottage, which I passed and hadn't stopped.

I guess I see much more of the landscape, the architecture, the people, when I am travelling alone. Of course it's nice to share things, when travelling together, but on the other hand you share with people you meet and that's very nice as well. I get part of the places where I am more easily than in a group.

I listened to Heinrich Böll's "Irisches Tagebuch" in Mayo. It was wonderful to be in the very scenery listening to the audiobook. Greetings from the Emmental (Bern), May

Marilyn Whiteley, on August 21, 2007, said:

Thank you, May, for your further thoughts on travel and searching for "the right" picture. Some of my recent travel has been with groups, not ordinary commercial tours, but ones where the people had some particular common interest. In that case, I simply have to try to do my very best with the opportunities that present themselves, and be thankful for what I see even though many times I would like to linger.

Traveling just with my husband is another matter, however. I am fortunate to have a companion who will turn around and go back, and wait while I shoot from many angles, and even try to find good vantage points for me! In a few days we will have been married 41 years, so we have adjusted to one another very well!

Greetings, Marilyn

♫ Swissmay, on August 22, 2007, said:

Marilyn, thank you for telling about you. Travelling in groups may have some advantages, if people have the same interests, but I would feel, as if something of the adventure is stolen, when somebody else organizes my travels. And additionally, it would probably grow to a hard task for any guide to keep me in line. ;)

No, no, I need to take the risk and go and discover for myself. That's what I actually love most in travelling. The disadvantage is, that travels get expensive as a single traveller, but then I compensate with cheaper places to stay, which as well can add to the adventure, as I experienced many times and I wouldn't want to miss them either. :) It's fine, that everybody is free to choose, what is convenient for him/her.

So nice for you to have an understanding husband, but then he is fortunate to have a wife with such a wonderful gift and it's not surprising, that he does his best to take the chance to see another beautiful work of you. I wish you and your husband many more happy decades together! Yours, May :)

Marilyn Whiteley, on August 22, 2007, said:

May, I applaud your spirit of adventure! And it certainly leads to fine photos as well as good stories.

Now that I think about it, my husband and I aren't completely without that spirit, having traveled as a couple but without a group in Namibia! Cheers, Marilyn

♫ Swissmay, on August 22, 2007, said:

Thank you Marilyn! Let us enjoy this feeling. You certainly are very adventurous, travelling around in Namibia and of what I've seen in your wonderful gallery, you visited many, many other countries as well. Greetings, May

PeSchn, on August 30, 2007, said:

Hallo, May, das ist ein weiteres fantastisches Foto und Grund genug für mich, Dir so einen gelben Stern zu verpassen. Deine Erzählung zu diesem Bild habe ich auch gelesen und war sehr angetan von diesem Abenteuer. Nur eines habe ich nicht verstanden: Du meintest, Du hättest kein Talent, Dir Geld durchs Singen zu verdienen, probiers doch einfach mit fotografieren, das kannst Du... Gruß Peter

♫ Swissmay, on August 30, 2007, said:

Hallo Peter, lieben Dank für die Auszeichnung und dein Vertrauen in meine fotografischen Fähigkeiten. :) Ich sehe mich schon auf den Strassen Dublins mit meiner Kamera, einem Drucker und einer Sammelbüchse. :-)) Gruss, May

Fascinating story May! Such an effort to see the dolmen! I played golf at this club which features a dolmen in the middle of the course and paid little attention to it! There’s a huge one not far from Graiguenamanagh – Browneshill dolmen

Nice gesture by the Shannon airport police to let you park. I am not clear on your cash problem. I am not sure if you ran out of cash or had no more money in your bank account so I cannot comment on that.

Never rely on Irish rural signposts. I forgot my map during a trip to the Wicklow Mountains so I was navigating by instinct. But who cares, it was a day out and I found this place by accident! It did mean I wrongly mapped it and had to rely on a Panoramio photo of the place by a German to correct it!

Always interesting to read visiters comments on my country - always full of surprises!

Cheers Gerry