A Loop Head Story: Carsten Krieger
My Wild Loop Head story begins some 25 years ago. At that time Ireland had been my holiday destination for some years and the procedure was more or less the same every year: Fly into Shannon, take a bus to Ennis, rent a bike and start cycling. Kilkee was always the first port of call on these tours but to be honest my favourite destination was the Burren. I was dreaming about making books about this enchanting place and maybe even live there.
This dream however changed slightly when a friend recommended to take a guided nature tour around Loop Head with a youngish Dr. Simon Berrow. I had been interested in natural history all my life, this is why I was so utterly fascinated by the Burren. The Loop Head Peninsula on the other hand had a wonderful scenery and I knew about the Shannon Dolphins but, in my mind, this couldn’t compete with the Burren’s wildflowers, butterflies and pine martens.
I can’t remember all the places Simon brought me to, all I recall from that day are bird noises and the smell of guano, glistening mudflats and the final stop of the tour which has been etched in my memory ever since. Simon lead the way on a short, marshy path which ended at a shingle beach. From there we could see Kilcredaun Lighthouse overlooking the Shannon Estuary on our left, gorse covered Rehy Hill to the right and below a, for me, mind bending and unexpected stretch of squelchy peat dotted with tree trunks: A place Simon introduced as the Drowned Forest. At that moment something clicked. Natural history wasn’t just a story in a book anymore, I could see it and touch it, I was part of it and in my mind I could see a vast forest stretching along the Shannon Estuary, wolfs walking the shoreline and the first human settlers searching the beach for cockles and razor shells.
When I settled on the Loop in 2002 I had high hopes to make a living as a nature photographer. Unfortunately nature wasn’t a big topic of interest in Ireland back then and the few people who tried to raise awareness for Ireland’s wildlife had a tough time. Magazines like Wild Ireland disappeared from the shelves and photographers like Mike Brown who self-published two highly acclaimed books on Ireland’s nature and wildlife eventually turned to tuition and portrait photography. Ambitious local projects like the Nature Quest Centre, which was founded by Eugene O’Kelly who is also responsible for the A Natural History Guide to the Loop Head Peninsula book, never took off the way they were planned to and I ended up working in the tourism sector, photographing pretty landscapes and other picturesque scenes to encourage visitors to come to Ireland.
Being a nature nerd, a title given to me by my kids, this didn’t mean I abandoned my hopes. I tried to include natural history topics in my books as good as I could, worked with and for organizations like the Irish Wildlife Trust and the Irish Peatland Conservation Council and joined biodiversity projects like Meet Your Neighbours, managed to make the books on the Burren I had always dreamed about and of course explored and tried to learn as much as possible about The Loop Head Peninsula.
Some ten years ago things started to change. Phrases like climate change and biodiversity crisis appeared in the media. At first these stories were ignored or laughed at, but scientific evidence and extreme events including never before seen storm and draught events right on our doorstep made more and more people aware that we are witnessing a process that will profoundly change the planet and that this process, at least in parts, is being caused by our behaviour and life style. As a consequence many people are becoming more interested in the natural world around them, the plants, the animals and how we fit into this delicate natural network.
Then Covid-19 hit and stopped most of us in their tracks. Like many others I found myself out of work almost overnight. Tourism had stopped and so the need for pretty pictures. For me however it was a blessing in disguise. A few months before the pandemic I had launched the Ireland’s Nature Stories project and now I had plenty of time to concentrate on it. Because I couldn’t go anywhere, I started photographing Loop Head’s natural world, day by day, from the spring equinox to the summer solstice which became my first ever e-book Silent Spring. Then I became involved in The Loop Head Together initiative being created with 50 local partner organaisations, joined the LT for Nature group and suddenly found myself writing biodiversity plans, building the Wild Loop Head website (www.wildloophead.com) and associated social media channels on Facebook and Instagram and filling in grant applications.
Since last year I have been sifting through Biodiversity Ireland records and counting plants and animals and exploring habitats all over Loop Head. The conclusion of this work so far is probably not surprising: the Loop Head Peninsula could be one of the prime destinations for nature tourism in Ireland if not Europe. We have the Shannon Dolphins and other resident and visiting marine animals like the basking shark. We have birds galore, breeding seabirds in summer, waders in winter and a decent number of residents as well, many of them on endangered species lists. We also have plenty of wildflowers, we have rock pools, hedgerows, farming meadows, mudflats and saltmarshes… a wonderland for nature nerds.
With the equipment funded by the recently approved Community Water Development Fund we can dive even deeper into the world of Wild Loop Head and this is why we will launch the Loop Head Nature & Wildlife Monitoring Program in the coming weeks.
Living in a place like Loop Head is, for me at least, a privilege. This privilege comes with a certain responsibility but also with unchartered opportunities. Loop Head Head Together is the vehicle to help us to live up to those responsibilities and harness the opportunities, and to ensure the Loop Head Peninsula will be enjoyed by residents and visitors alike for years and years to come.
Carsten Krieger, May 2021
