About Us

Robert Ardill and Cathy Ardill: We are both landscape photographers. Robert is also a painter and Cathy a graphic designer. We have captured images of many parts of the world, especially in Europe, but in recent years we have focused almost exclusively on the Irish landscape.

We are fascinated by the subtlety of the Irish scenery and the transience of the light. Ireland is a country of water, mists, clouds ... and bursts of sunlight. Every season is an entirely different experience and so is every hour of the day. Dawn and dusk are particularly beautiful: over in minutes in the wintertime but long and lazy in the summertime when the nights last for only a few hours.

We live in the lovely village of Slane in County Meath. The historic and beautiful river Boyne runs by our house. We are surrounded by ancient sites such as the megalithic tombs at Newgrange, Dowth and Knowth; The Hill of Slane, with the ruins of a 16th century Franciscan Monastery, looks down on the Boyne valley, Slane Castle and the wonderful 14th century Slane Bridge; to the East is the town of Drogheda and the Irish Sea; to the West the towns of Navan and Kells; to the South Dublin and Trim; to the North Antrim and the wild North Atlantic coast.

We supply greeting cards and prints (framed and unframed) of our images worldwide.

If you would like to purchase rights-managed digital downloads of our images please contact us at info@IrelandUpClose.com.

France

We have lived for a number of years in Arles in Provence. This is a most fascinating town in a most fascinating countryside. Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne, Picasso and other great painters have made this countryside famous to the art world. Lucien Clergue is one of France's great photographers and the founder of the Rencontre d'Arles - a world-famous photographic venue held every year in Arles. This part of France is a different world to Ireland - dry, hot and with brilliant light, whereas Ireland is soft, misty and has subtle and shifting light. To the photographer, Provence is more immediately accessible than Ireland - however it is a very difficult part of the world to capture well. We hope you will enjoy some of our images of Arles and the surrounding countryside at FranceUpClose.

Our House in France

We now live for most of the year in Ireland and as a result our house in France is available for rental by the week. If you would like to see some pictures of the house, or if you are interested in renting it, please look here: Arles Rental

Cathy on Diamond Hill

Robert lost in the trees

We would welcome your comments and enquiries at info@IrelandUpClose.com

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Links to our friends

If you want to explore Meath then this is a wonderful site with loads of useful information about Meath: Meath Tourism
This is a wonderful site on the 5000 Year Old Megalithic Passage tomb at Newgrange: A World Heritage Site.
Another great site on the 5000 Year Old Megalithic Passage tomb at Knowth: Megalithic Passage Tombs of The Boyne Valley.
If you are interested in Slane this site will tell you all about it (even has some of our images!): Slane Tourism
If you are interested in a visiting the real County Meath then go no further than here: Holidays in Meath
For a guided tour of Kells this is where to go: Guided Tours of Kells
For more information on Kells: Kells Tourism
For information and news on cultural, arts and landscape events: Mythic Links
If you live in Meath and would like Yoga classes, then we highly recommend Carmel Finnegan, our wonderful teacher and friend: Swan Lane Yoga
If you would like to purchase some of our greeting cards you can do so here: Cards Of Ireland
If you would like a great holiday in Arles, Van Gogh's town, here is a great place to stay!: Arles Rental
You can see some of our pictures of France here: FranceUpClose
Our pictures are also available on Picasaweb - Ireland Photos

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Site Info

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