Spotlight: Tralee, Ireland

This is another amazing town.  The curved facades, the streets that trace the contours of the land, the stone walls, the variety of paint colors: a lot of these design elements are similar to the ones in Ouro Preto; and both are also upland towns, rather than ports.  (Tralee does have a basin with access to the sea in its far southwest.)  One important difference: unlike Ouro, whose continental roots have its streets converging on a paved plaza, Tralee is laid out more in the English style (apologies to Uncle Don and other Irish patriots), with smaller green squares worked into its grid, and a large park set aside on its outskirts.

Most of the attached buildings in Tralee appear to be built on the standard 20′-25′ (7m) wide lots– the same as in New York City or anywhere else.  (On a random note, the forward-pitched roofs on these buildings, which seem so classically Irish, are also common on a certain period of the houses in Newark and Philadelphia.)  Meanwhile, the setbacks of the detached houses are modest, the gardens are often bounded by stone walls, and the lot coverages are substantial, all contributing to a sense of enclosure on the greener blocks leading away from the town center.

Photos remain the copyright of Google, and are used in accordance with the principles of Fair Use.  Explore the streets of Tralee, yourself, here.

The Mall.

Spa Road.

Russel and Rock Streets.

Rock Street.

Lower Castle Street.

Ivy Terrace, and the Kerry Co. Museum

Denny Street.

Ashe Street.