Dark Hedges

The January page of my Ireland Calendar 2027 features the Dark Hedges in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. For me, this spot is an old acquaintance whose fate I have been watching with concern for years. The rows are visibly thinning out, and lately even dramatically. The beeches were planted around 1775 along Bregagh Road and look back on a long life. Some of them could no longer withstand the storms of recent winters, since they are reaching the end of their natural lifespan. Mass tourism has also taken its toll. For a long time, cars were parked right beside the trees at the roadside, which compacted the soil and harmed the roots. There has only been a visitor car park since the Game of Thrones boom made matters worse. On top of that came driving bans, so that the beeches are put under as little strain as possible.

In the TV series, the avenue served as the ‘Kingsroad’, and it was already a hive of activity there. In real life, the spectacle beneath the beeches differs only in the costumes. The road is usually packed with people, even on rainy days. That is understandable, because the avenue still has something magical about it.

Thanks to the road running from south-east to north-west, the Dark Hedges enjoy pleasing photographic light from dawn to dusk. The question here is rather how to keep the crowds out of the frame, so that you don’t later have to retouch them for donkey’s years. The answer is obvious: go very early or very late. I recommend starting to shoot about an hour after sunrise, or working until shortly before sunset. Another advantage of the early and late hours is that warm raking light falls into the avenue, lending the scene additional mystique. If you can’t arrange it any other way and arrive during the day, you’ll need patience above all.

The picture for my calendar was taken one afternoon last June, right in the middle of the tourist rush hour. I happened to be nearby and wanted to see how the old hardchaws were getting on. Naturally, I set up my tripod and waited … and waited … and waited, until, after around 30 minutes, my time came and the avenue was deserted for a brief moment. I could also have fallen back on a shot from my photo archive, captured in that warm raking light. However, I make a point of showing the most up-to-date images possible in the calendar. This applies in particular to landmarks that are currently undergoing change.

As tragic as this change may be, it does at least spark the spirit of invention. When a storm felled some of the old trees in January 2016, people in Northern Ireland made a virtue of necessity. The wood from the fallen trunks was used to create the ‘Doors of Thrones’: several doors with artistically carved motifs from the TV series. They were spread across the whole country and installed in various pubs and hotels. And just like that, a new tourist trail was born, the ‘Journey of the Doors’. I think the trees would have been pleased that their legacy lives on in this way.