Woodlawn House, Co Galway. Present DayOne of my most visited sites is Abandoned Ireland. It started as a personal project in June 2008 by Tarquin Blake. Blake, a software engineer and photographer based in Cork, wanted to document and record buildings that have been left to rot and fall into disrepair. They are an important part of our Irish heritage, have some historical, architectural or social importance and yet have been forgotten and neglected.
The site features circa 100 properties: homes, religious institutes, country manors and historical buildings. Blake even managed to gain access to Boland's Mill, an old flour mill building in the inner-city Grand Canal Dock area of Dublin. Boland's was one of the key locations in the 1916 Easter Rising (a defining moment in the struggle for Irish independence) and access is prohibited. Out of all the places featured, my favourite is Woodlawn House in Co Galway.
