Illauncreeveen Panoramic, Glengarriff, Co. Cork

I found this spot entirely by accident, having arrived in Glengarriff to discover the village shops had shut for the evening. It turns out to be a local swimming place, looking out across the harbour to Illauncreeveen island, with the Sugar Loaf on the Beara peninsula off to the right. The harbour here has an odd microclimate, thanks to the Gulf Stream and the shelter of the mountains around it, so you get palm trees and tree ferns and things that really belong in the Azores.The water went completely dead calm as the sun dropped below the Caha Pass. Thin cirrus took the colour and held it, and the whole harbour turned to a mirror for maybe fifteen minutes before it faded. The little red buoy was the only thing moving, more or less, and the only bit of proper colour in the whole scene.