[360°, Arainn, Aran Islands, ancient, Dun Eochla, fort, Inis Mor, Inishmore, Ireland, karst, Sold as Card, stone, >500 >1,000 >2,000 >3,000 views, Featured, three features]
        Camera: Canon EOS 5d         |         Lens: Zenitar 16 mm fisheye lens M42 Manual Focus

1. 22nd May 2013 View Count reached 3,008

1. 16th June 2012 featured in the group Superbly Visual

This 360° panorama was shot inside an ancient stone fort called: Dun Eochla on Inishmore.

It is based on a design that occurs in other parts of Ireland
Grianan of Aileach 250Km away in County Donegal.

These two images were jointly featured in the Redbubble group “Sets of Two”

Dun Eochla is a circular bivallate (double walled) stone fort located near the highest point on Inishmore (Inis Mhór), the largest of the Aran Islands. It was subjected to some restoration work in the late 19th Century. The original construction date of Dun Eochla is estimated to be between 550 and 800AD. It is thought to have been the dwelling place for an extended family and their animals. It may have replaced an even older settlement.

It is a dry stone wall type construction. The main inner wall is 5m high at its highest point and 3.5m thick.

It has not been excavated so the date that is ascribed to it is based on the visible remains. There are diverse theories about the circular stone structure inside, most of which assume that it is a comparatively recent addition – to be dated in centuries rather than millennia. One such theory is that it is simply a tidy pile of left-over stones from the nineteenth century restoration; another that it was associated with the lighthouse built in the adjacent plot around about the same time.

Visible outside the fort is a long abandoned lighthouse – a folly that was built in the nineteenth century. Its construction was based on the misconception that passing shipping could make do with a single lighthouse on the highest point of the island.

Expecting sailors to sit down with their charts and instruments in order to work out the positions where the rocks were likely to loom up, based on the positions of the lights some miles away, turned out to not be a practical proposal after all!

Who could have known that mariners would prefer to have lights on the hazardous rocks rather than on the top of the island … well anyone who had ever been in a boat on a choppy sea!

The source images were shot on a Canon EOS 5d with a 16 mm fisheye lens and stitched and blended together as a HDR panorama using Hugin (a free open source program).

 
History of this Image on RedBubble

1. 15th March 2010 uploaded to Redbubble
2. 9th May 10 Sold as a Greetings Card

1. 15th May 2010 it had been been commented on by nine people, had been made a favourite by two people, had sold one copy as a greeting card and had been viewed 100 times.
2. Featured along with Grianan image in the “Sets of Two” group
3. 30th April 2011 featured in the group Ancient Sites, Relics and Customs
4. 19th August 2011 View count 501
5. 16th June 2012 featured in the group Superbly Visual
    

I have written a short journal entry introducing the method by which these panoramas are created, it is called:
“Creating a Stereographic Panorama – the Basic Idea”

I have other panoramas here from the Aran Islands .

I have three collections here of stereographic panoramas like this one, they are panoramas of:

Donegal	Derry
The Aran Islands