Book excerpt: In Abandoned Ireland 2, photographer Rebecca Brownlie travels further off the beaten path to explore and showcase Ireland’s forgotten buildings before nature or the demolition man claims them forever. Through her evocative photography, we cross the threshold of deserted mansions, cottages, convents and hotels, mills and shopping centres, wandering through once-lively rooms that have now fallen silent, where only mementos of the past stand sentinel. Amid the decay, tables are elaborately set for tea, coats hang by the door and well-thumbed books lay poised and open, as if their owner will be back at any moment. From a castle where King James II stayed before the Battle of the Boyne to a manor house whose occupants mysteriously disappeared in the middle of the night, the arresting and poignant photography on every page is a love letter to Ireland’s buildings abandoned to time.