Stairs in a gothic church

Many many years ago I was asked by the nuns of Kylemore Abbey if I would take some photographs for a calendar to help in the restoration fund for the beautiful, but at the time neglected, gothic church which lay in the grounds of the abbey. When I arrived they politely but firmly warned me that the bell tower was too dangerous to enter and the door would be locked. Ignoring what had happened to the curious cat, I found a loose panel in the bottom of the tower door that, once removed, would just about let me enter. My reward, just enough natural light to photograph these beautiful curving stairs that disappeared into the lost light of the tower. The image often brings to mind one of my favourite paintings 'The Meeting on Turret Stairs', which hangs in the National Gallery of Ireland. This image never made the calendar, I was too afraid to show it to the nuns.  

 

Hidden Stairs photograph

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