Wild Beauty

One man and his dog on a stormy beach next to Bunmahon, a coastal village in County Waterford, Ireland. During the 19th century, it was a mining village mostly for copper and hard to believe but just inland from the headland in the pic’s background the deepest shaft dropped some 1,000 feet, before extending out to sea.

Back then the population of the village swelled to over 2,000 people, with a pawn shop, a creamery, a bacon factory, along with 21 public houses. Now it’s reverted to a sleepy little community with most of the businesses long gone and just two pubs. One of them “Slims” was a regular haunt when I spent ten very enjoyable years living on the nearby coast close by and ran my niche photo agency “The Irish Image Collection”. Very happy days !

In the 21st century Bunmahon has become the centre of the Copper Coast, a UNESCO Global Geopark with a visitor centre in the village’s former Church of Ireland church. Geoparks are geographical areas where sites and landscapes of international geological significance are managed with a holistic concept of protection, education and sustainable development. Their bottom-up approach of combining conservation with sustainable development while involving local communities is becoming increasingly popular. At present, there are 169 UNESCO Global Geoparks in 44 countries.

And the beach….unsurprisingly it’s used by surfers use all year round, with a surfing school in the summer months…