Ireland 2025 – The Classics & Roadside Finds Tours

Highlights From This Trip

• 12 Days, 2 trips
• ~1300 miles driven
• 25 Locations Photographed
• ~350 photographs
• Time capsule cottages, stepping back in time to the 70s and 90s
• Some cool surprise roadside finds!
• Wild camping in the forests in my cosy hammock
• Two classics: Asylum X and The Borstal

This year I made two road trips to Ireland, one might say it is becoming a tradition! These trips were a wonderful mix of urban exploration adventures, analogue photography, and wild camping in the forest. This summer I explored the hidden treasures of Ireland, both in the north and south of the border. These trips brought an eclectic mix of lost places, from historically significant sites through to completely random roadside finds glimpsed through hedges.

Time capsules – Dusty workshops, shuttered bars & forgotten cottages

It is not always the grand, pristine locations that captivate me; sometimes I enjoy a leisurely exploration of quaint, dusty corners. One such place was little more than a tin shack by the roadside. Inside was a bicycle repair workshop and a small shop selling a random mix of household goods. Vintage signs, tools, bicycle parts, tins, and old packaging filled the space in haphazard fashion. This setting gifted me the perfect opportunity to break out the 50mm lens and dwell on detail and texture shots for a while.

A sprinkling of abandoned Irish houses offered a change of scenery and a chance to step back in time and glimpse life in decades past. One small collapsing cottage felt frozen in the 1970s, with tacky ornaments in cabinets and decor dominated by orange-brown. Elsewhere, another cottage held a colourful plastic 1990s Spiderman television, surrounded by religious artwork and trinkets (and plenty of Pope portraits!). The fridge, plugged in and humming away despite the house’s decades-long abandonment, was most peculiar.

A roadside bar was another location that brought an unexpected smile to my face (and a flurry of shutter clicks on both digital and 35mm cameras!). Sadly the vandals had beaten me, and the inside was smashed and trashed. Normally, the scene would be a disappointment, but I arrived to find all the exterior walls of the bar were decorated with murals. The colourful artwork featured a complete menagerie of Guinness animals. The collection included my personal favourite: the cheeky Guinness sea lion, which had a pint of the good stuff perfectly balanced on his nose. Delightful!

Recording abandoned Irish churches

My “top church” award this year goes to a building that was both impressive in size and beauty, in addition to being historically interesting. Established in the 1830s to serve local weavers, it went on to serve a Protestant congregation for close to 180 years. During the Troubles, the church was separated by a peace wall and security force checkpoints that divided Catholic and Protestant neighbourhoods. Around 15 years have passed since the church’s abandonment.

Most of the other churches I explored this year were ruins, beautifully melting into the landscape and being reclaimed by nature.

Amazing roadside finds – A 1960s car, ice cream vans, and a fire engine!

Some of the best things in life are surprises. For a photographer of abandoned places and forgotten things, this is especially true. As the miles on the odometer rise, so do the chances for surreptitious finds hidden behind the hedges.

A cornflower-blue car caught my eye in an overgrown garden, which turned out to be a 1960s Ford Zephyr sitting outside an abandoned house. On another day an old-fashioned fire engine was spotted in a field, which was a highlight. It was dumped alongside other trucks, including a couple that looked like former telecoms vehicles. Lastly, there was a small collection of ice cream vans tucked behind hedges. These offered a wonderfully colourful collection to walk among in between rain showers.

Exploring some classic abandoned places of Ireland

You know it’s a great trip when you tick off a bucket list item! This location had thwarted my attempts to visit several times in the past. (four times, to be precise!). Finally I got into the enormous sprawling Asylum X! I spent hours working through the interconnected corridors, photographing as I explored. Corridors lined with pastel-hued peeling paint, lonely wheelchairs covered with dust. A photographer’s paradise!

Another long-awaited visit was to an old borstal (a youth prison). Much of the site is heavily damaged and covered in graffiti, but the cell area still holds a lot of potential for my style of photography. The barred doorways, peeling paint, and corridors lined with dozens of small cells create a spooky atmosphere. As a bonus, several cells held murals of 1990s cartoons, including X-Men, Looney Tunes, a Terminator piece, and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

Appearing in my Beautiful Abandoned Places Calendars 2026!

Some of the locations and photographs featured on this blog also appear in my Beautiful Abandoned Places 2026 calendar, available for sale now.

My calendar only features photos captured this year, to celebrate an amazing 12 months of adventures.

You can find out more about my calendar, and order your own copy in my online shop.

Take a closer look!

A trio of 35mm film stocks!

I have shot a LOT of film this year, but I have purchased even more. Most of this is in long-term storage in my freezer. I defrosted some cans especially for my Ireland trips!

• Lomography Color Negative 100
• Orwo Wolfen NC500
• Film Washi S 50

More behind-the-scenes photos from my Ireland 2025 Road Trip(s)

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this road trip blog! Here are the rest of the behind-the-scenes snaps and preview photos from this trip, see you next time <3.