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ST ANN’S WELL AT ST ANNE’S PARK

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A HOLY WELL NOW DESCRIBED AS A WISHING WELL

This was difficult to photograph as there was little natural light available.

The notices within the grounds and the tour guide, aimed at children, refer to the well as a wishing well but I am not convinced that it was ever a wishing well and as I have never seen any coins within the structure I suspect the most visitors are not convinced either.

St. Ann’s Well in Raheny, Dublin, Ireland was once a popular holy well, and gave its name (with a slightly different spelling) to the well-known St. Anne’s Park, the city’s second largest municipal park, home for many years to the Guinness family.

The well site has a protective hood of stones, and lies just beyond the old lake of the park, with its Roman temple, and below the Watchtower folly, near the main coastal entrance.

The well itself dried up in the 1950s, and although Dublin City Council made several attempts to relocate the source, it remains dry as of 2021. The site is still respected, and was visited in 2000 by a formal joint procession of worshippers from the Raheny parishes of the Roman Catholic Church and Church of Ireland. The site was cleaned of soil and vegetation by a specialist contractor in early 2018, the original well opening located, and a safety grille, also keeping leaves out, was fitted over the former outlet.

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WINETAVERN STREET – ST MICHAELS HILL

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CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL

My Grandmother always referred to this as St. Michaels Hill but my father referred to it as Winetavern Street and until recently I also referred to it as Winetavern street because that was what on any map that I had seen.

However, about three years ago, I noticed a street sign under the arch at Christ Church Cathedral indicating that it is St. Michael’s Hill.

After some research I discovered that the left hand side [East] of the street heading towards the river is St. Michael’s Hill while the other side of the street is Winetavern Street. To make things even more complicated St. Michael’s Lane was originally Christchurch Lane.

In the 17th century, taverns on Winetavern Street included the Whitehorse the Golden Lion and the King’s Head and all are long gone.

Christ Church Cathedral, more formally The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, is the cathedral of the United Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough and the cathedral of the ecclesiastical province of the United Provinces of Dublin and Cashel in the (Anglican) Church of Ireland. It is situated in Dublin, Ireland, and is the elder of the capital city’s two medieval cathedrals, the other being St Patrick’s Cathedral.

The cathedral was founded in the early 11th century under the Viking king Sitric Silkenbeard. It was rebuilt in stone in the late 12th century under the Norman potentate Strongbow, and considerably enlarged in the early 13th century, using Somerset stones and craftsmen. A partial collapse in the 16th century left it in poor shape and the building was extensively renovated and rebuilt in the late 19th century, giving it the form it has today, including the tower, flying buttresses, and distinctive covered footbridge.

UNUSED CHURCH OF IRELAND CHURCH ON THE NEW TU GRANGEGORMAN CAMPUS

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TODAY I DECIDED TO USE AN OLD SIGMA CAMERA

The Church of Ireland was built in 1860, just south of its Roman Catholic counterpart – St. Laurence’s Church. It was designed by George Wilkinson. As of yet, it has not been refurbished but TU Dublin has plans to recover the building in the future and hopes to put it into use as a student event space. The Church presides over its own significant open space with an existing grove of trees and the plans for this protected site are for it to be refurbished for a variety of cultural uses.

A few years ago i was offered a Sigma DP1 Quattro at a very good price and while I had a bad experience with all my previous Sigma cameras I decided to accept the offer especially as the camera could produce .dng images but, as you may have guessed, there were many problems that can be really annoying. The DP1 Quattro is a fixed lens camera aimed at enthusiasts who demand the best image quality in a reasonably portable form factor. Announced in September 2014, it’s a unique camera in many respects, employing an unusually-shaped body, a fixed focal length lens and a sensor unlike any outside of Sigma’s range. It also eschews modern features we take for granted on other new cameras such as Wifi or even a movie mode. The DP1 Quattro is all about still photo quality.

SAINT BARTHOLOMEW’S CHURCH

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STRANMILLIS PARISH IN BELFAST

This was my first to explore Stranmillis area of Belfast in detail. I visited again in 2021 and 2022.

I photographed this attractive church in June 2016 and I was in as really bad humour as it rained all day and when I tried to gat a bus from Stranmillis I had to stand at the bus stop for more than an hour and on arriving in the city centre I realised that I could have walked in less time than I waited for the bus.

There is an amazing number of churches in Belfast but in many cases it is difficult to discover their history. All that I can find out about this church is that it may have been built in 1931 or 1932 and that it is Church Of Ireland [Note: 1926 Tenders invited for New Church Builidngs, St Bartholomew’s Parish]. The Church of Ireland is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion which has 70 million members in 164 countries. The Diocese of Connor, in the Province of Armagh, is one of 12 dioceses on the island of Ireland.

I visited their website and on selecting the History Tab found no information relating to the past.

Stranmillis (from Irish an Sruthán Milis) is an area in south Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is also an electoral ward for Belfast City Council, part of the Laganbank district electoral area. As part of the Queen’s Quarter, it is the location for prominent attractions such as the Ulster Museum and Botanic Gardens. The area is located on Stranmillis Road, with Malone Road to the west and the River Lagan to the east. Its name, meaning “the sweet stream” in Irish, refers to the Lagan, whose waters are still fresh at this point, before becoming brackish as the river flows onward toward its mouth in Belfast Lough.

Stranmillis Road begins at the junction of University Road, Malone Road and College Gardens, heading uphill and southwards past Friar’s Bush Graveyard and a small shopping district, before descending towards the River Lagan. The route then swings to the west around the outside of Stranmillis College and uphill again, before rejoining the Malone Road. The north end of Stranmillis Road contains many shops and restaurants, while the south end of the road is mainly housing.

The Malone and Stranmillis Historic Urban Landscape featured on the 2010 tentative list of sites proposed for addition to the List of World Heritage Sites of the United Kingdom, as an area of architectural interest featuring examples of the Arts and Crafts Movement.

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