North Atlantic Skyline - - Photographs from the west of Ireland (Galway, Mayo, Clare, Limerick, Roscommon and even Leitrim)

The Heather Blazing

There's a huge fire blazing in the hills around Moycullen this evening, sending a huge pall of smoke over the city. This is the second major fire in as many weeks, and there have been plenty of smaller ones too. Practically all such fires in the west are started deliberately. Full gallery to appear later in the week.

Update: Here is a short gallery of pictures of last night's fire near Moycullen, just west of Galway city. The first shot shows the huge plume of smoke seen from Menlough, about 50 km away. The second one shows the plume from 1-2 km away. The fire had begun around 5pm near Shannagurraun (Seanadh Gharrain) and began to slowly eat its way north eastwards through the dry grass and heather, driven by a light wind. These photographs were taken around Keeraunduff Hill (Cnoc na gCaoran Dubh) just off the narrow bog road that joins Spiddal to Moycullen. The dry undergrowth burns fiercly, and some of the flames were gusting to 6 to 10 feet high. While I was there., locals drove through the smoldering bogland to a point further up the hill to better assess the damage. The worry was that the flames were moving towards a large forested area at Knocklough (Cnoc an Locha), close to Moycullen and to the houses nearby.

Camera= Canon 5D, lens= Canon 100-400@370mm, ISO=1000, aperture=f5.6, speed=1/125 sec.

moycullen, bog, fire, heather, blaze, gorse, spring, galway, ireland, irishblogs, photoblogs, photography, galwayblogs, monasette, Canon, 5D, april, 2007

Posted by Monasette at April 10, 2007 11:46 PM