About this photograph
Two people stretched out on the grass by the lakes of Killarney, the mountains beyond. A summer afternoon that feels like it could last for ever.
The lake is Lough Leane, the largest of the three Lakes of Killarney: about 19 square kilometres of water and more than thirty islands. Around it lies Killarney National Park, the first national park in Ireland, created in 1932 when the Muckross estate was given to the nation. The park shelters the country's only native herd of wild red deer, ancient oak and yew woods, and on one of the lake's islands, the ruins of Innisfallen, a monastery founded in the 7th century.
Visitors have been coming to admire this view for well over two hundred years. The two people in this photograph have found a better use for it. They are stretched out on the grass with the mountains at their feet, doing exactly what a sunny day in Kerry is for.
Of the colour prints in the collection, this is the gentlest: blue water, green grass, soft hills. It is a classic Irish landscape photograph with a human touch, and a lovely piece for anyone who has walked the lakeshore at Killarney, or always meant to.
