The Sands of Time

One of the most popular images in my coast series is this photograph of Oísin Óg (G566p), an inshore fishing boat in west Connemara, produced in 2015. It is a "potter" which fishermen use to fish the bays, to collect shellfish, crabs and lobster.

There was something particularly noble and honest about this almost perfect vessel resting on the strand, with the bay in which it would have trawled, lying calm in the distance.

Below is another view of the craft, with one of its pots, resting under the imposing bulk of Mweelrea, the highest mountain in Connaught.

We try to walk this beach at least once a year, but as the weather on the following couple of years was very "wintery" during our all too short visits, we generally kept to the sea shore, as the tide was out and it was bitterly cold!

With more time to spend in the winter of 2018, I was walking along the same beach, but this time ventured further away from the shore. I noticed against the light what I thought to be a fence that had been covered by sand. However, as I approached it, I could see that it was the skeleton hull of a small fishing boat.

It was only when I looked more closely that I could make out the figures G566p. It was the wreck of Oísin Óg!

I can't express the sadness that I felt, seeing the broken back of this once noble vessel, now partially buried in the sand, under the cloud covered bulk of Mweelrea. 

I thought of the Irish legend of Oísin, when he returned from Tir na Nóg still looking young, after being away for 300 years and when his feet touched Irish soil, became the old and broken man that he really was. 

When I returned to the beach in December 2019, only the stays of the Oísin Óg's hull remained above the sand. The rest had been buried, or washed away. It was a fitting resting place under Mweelrea, with a beautiful view over the bay.

It pays to appreciate and celebrate the people and things we encounter in life, as the sands of time don't wait!