Looking across the bog and the valley towards the Cliffs of Moher we could see a thatched house sitting on it’s own on the hillside, overlooking the bog. Parked next to it was a light blue Volkswagen Beetle.
I wondered who would be living there, on the back of the mountain, without electricity or water.
It was years later we were on a summer’s day cross country walk that we stumbled upon the same house. It had been abandoned, a friend told us the man in it had been offered a council house in town and he just upped, left everything, including the dysfunctional Beetle, and walked into town where he lived for a few years and died.
The house at the time was in a poor state, a section of the roof had fallen in, exposing half of the kitchen but everything was still there, a settlebed was sitting against the wall, the table was there with a pair of shoes sitting under it as if the person living there had just left the room.
There was an air of sadness and abandonment, as there would be around empty houses like that. At the time I shot a bunch of Black and White photos and continued on my walk.
Today was a nice day and with an hour to spare we decided t o drive the backroad, park the car and hop over the hill. I had some more pictures in mind, big square B&W ones but I also took the digital shooter.
Coming over the hill it was immediately clear the rest of the thatch had now fallen in:
In the kitchen the weight of the roof had squashed the table, chairs and covered up the settle bed
The wardrobe was still there, it’s paint peeling in the weather
And inside a jacket still hanging
The windows on the front of the house, as usual, showed the passing fashions in colour
The lean-to shed with flagstone roof had lost a corner and was about to collapse
But the Beetle was still there
After a while we walked back over the access road looking towards Liscannor Bay and The Cliffs of Moher, the wind was east and the air was hazy
About a mile from the house, where we had left the car parked outside the gate is the well that provided the house with drinking water, still as clean as ever
