Robert French - Drumcliffe, Co. Clare

What a lovely day for a visit to the Banner County. Spring seems to have sprung in this Emerald Isle of ours. I have seen cattle in grassy (and reasonably dry) fields, apple trees with buds ready to bloom and yesterday I saw my first swallow of the year. There is something charming about the swallow and its life cycle. I read recently that in the old days people believed that the swallow lived in underwater hibernation over the course of the winter. Perhaps some of the Flat Earthers still believe! Nothing substantial known here about this photo, so over to you.......Niall Sisson ( /photos/130615039@N05/ ) helpfully points us to entries in the often useful Megalithic Ireland website for the Drumcliff Round Tower ( http://www.megalithicireland.com/Drumcliff Round Tower, Clare.html ) and Church ( http://www.megalithicireland.com/Drumcliff Church, Clare.html ) . Niall number two (or is it number one), Niall McAuley ( /photos/gnmcauley/ ) , similarly helped with the mapping and dating - noting that other images in this possible series may date to c.1880/1890s. BeachcomberAustralia ( /photos/beachcomberaustralia/ ) also confirms that this was likely the very late summer - given the haystack in view. Finally (and sadly) John Spooner ( /photos/johnspooner/ ) points us to a contemporary report which explains the fate of the ancient round tower. Incredibly an ignorant road builder blew it up for raw materials :( ..........Photographer: Robert French..Collection: Lawrence Photograph Collection ( http://catalogue.nli.ie/Collection/vtls000313414 ) ..Date: Catalogue range c.1865-1914. Perhaps after c.1880s (graves?)..NLI Ref: L_ROY_04191 ( vtls000322270 ) ..You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie ( http://catalogue.nli.ie )