larne

Start here:
www.google.com/search?q=Holden%27s+Laharna+hotel&sca_...

www.ebay.com.au/itm/296003780386?srsltid=AfmBOopYj2D1aUgP...

www.facebook.com/DaughterofLaharna/photos/a.1032682620422...

www.archiseek.com/1905-laharna-hotel-larne-co-antrim/

I might be wrong, but I am guessing the photo is after 1897.

beachcomber australia you might be right!

Here is something: there is a scratched out title line above and to the left of the legible one, which means this is a Cabinet plate copy.
Here is the original Imperial plate image for comparison and maybe more detail -
L_IMP_1029 - catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000329267

Warwickshire Herald - Thursday 25 August 1898

Holidays keepers who intend to spend their summer vacation in the Emerald Isle, can hardly do better than to select Holden's Laharna Hotel, Larne, as their headquarters. The establishment, which is under the efficient personal superintendence of Mr. A. W. Holden. is undoubtedly one of the best in Larne, and visitors will find their material requirements well catered for. In addition to commercial, coffee, dining and drawing rooms. there is a large concert and ball room, promenade roof, tennis court and all the adjuncts of a really first class English or Continental hotel.

and this is what you got for your 2 guineas

For two guineas the can have six days hotel accommodation, including three meals daily. a first-class railway journey to Portrush and Giant's Causeway. a total distance of 180 miles, a coach drive to Glenoe Waterfalls, as trip to Whitehead and Blackhead, a drive round the city of Belfast, with free admission to the principal places. and a fifty mile coach drive to Glenarm, Camlough and Glenariff Falls, along the finest coast in the British Isles. The impression of the visitor to the Laharna Hotel can hardly fail to be that the enterprising host supplies his guest with a marvellous two guineas worth.

(a) you're very early this morning, obviously having eaten your wheat cereal with milk and raisins for energy! (b) You appear to have had a bad weekend as you are in cruel and inhuman form inflicting suffering on innocent people on a wet and dreary Monday. (c) the a foot the cataloguer mentions is of course "afoot" rather than "astride" or "aboard" but its a good title anyway! What a dreadful pose for a photograph? What did they think they were doing - showing their best side to the camera???

I could see a distinctive "notch" in the the background and felt that such a unique topographical feature would be relatively easy to identify. On closer examination it seems that this is one of those plates where the sky has either peeled or been scraped off and the "notch" is just a bad piece of scraping;-( When you look at the detail on what remains in the shot it is a very fine one with the two ladies peeking around the building near the church to look at the those crazy tourists and photographer. I'm thinking down near Connemara or West Clare and there is a similar castle near Doolin, could that be it???

Swordscookie (a) have had no breakfast yet - putting the needs of our Flickroonies before my own! (odour of singing martyr) But don't tell my mother I left the house with no brekkie, there'd be hell to pay... (b) Knowing you lot, one of you will announce in the next few minutes that you know exactly where this was taken...

Not a Lot to go on..... West of Ireland I would reckon. AND - way out there ----------- on the left are they cables?? something to do with Marconi?? Similar cables to ????

Reminiscent of Carrigogunnel Castle. www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland/7948253702/in/photostream/

There seems to have been extensive land reclamation since 1955. Google Satellite 3D view - www.google.com/maps/@54.8448983,-5.7937917,89a,35y,323.44...

[Aside] We visited the pale house near the Chaine Memorial Tower (see note right hand side) in 1899 - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaine_Memorial

beachcomber australia And excavation, it’s difficult to reconcile that view with any of the various vintage PRONI maps. The trip could have been worth his while as the fuel would have been tax free for a ‘foreign flight’

Two railways ran side by side to Larne harbour. The Ballymena and Larne railway, a narrow gauge railway and the Belfast and Northern Counties railway, a standard gauge railway. 1950 saw wholesale closures of railways following the formation of the Ulster Transport Authority in 1948. The Ballymena and Larne railway was one of many that were closed than year. The road on the right of the railway lines is still known as the Narrow Gauge Road.

Passenger steamer is the Princess Margaret, older sister of the well known Princess Maud.