It was a gray, overcast/sunny day when I peered up over a hedge and saw this little building. It stopped me in my tracks. It was built 1300 years ago at the South-eastern corner of Smerwick Harbor on the Dingle Peninsula in Co. Kerry, on the central west coast of Ireland. It’s about 24 feet long by 15 feet wide by 15 feet high. The stones are laid at an angle so they shed rain. I fall in love with buildings from time to time, and this is right at the top of the list. I hung around for an hour and a half and shot over 100 photos. I’m sure there’s a lot of information online about it. I’ll post some more photos, including some panoramas showing the encircling stone walls, when I have time.

It was a thrill to see this replica of Francis Drake’s flagship in London (docked in St Mary Overie Dock near the

Tate Modern Museum), to think that this little ship circumnavigated the globe between 1577 and 1580 (and sailed right by our home town in Northern California). These sailors/navigators/priates not only sailed the world, but pillaged other ships, with no motors, just the wind.