Springfield Castle, Broadford,
Co. Limerick, Éire

This is one of the latest photos in the album since it dates from the summer of 2018 just before the long run of extraordinarily warm and sunny weather came to an end. That had gone on for months and there were concerns about water shortages and reduced feeding for livestock. As it happened, the autumn made up for that, so farming businesses were not hit as hard as they otherwise might have been though private water supplies did not recover in time for 2019 in every case. That is something that I know from personal experience.

In fact, my first sight of Springfield Castle happened during another long dry warm sunny summer: 1984. It may have been a grey evening, but cattle were eating silage in the middle of the summer as we drove in the front gate and out the back gate. Because the castle hosts groups of guests these days, such openness can be absent and walkers have been asked to avoid the castle area completely to walk from the back gate to the graveyard where they exited the property. If you fancy a stroll there, that consideration is best kept in mind for the sake of guest privacy.