Stones of Aran

This remarkable book describes a journey or pilgrimage around the coast of Arainn taken by writer and map-maker Tim Robinson, 'a unique interpreter of the rocky luminous landscape off Galway Bay'. From 'Timescape with Signpost', which charts the island's geological and more recent history, Pilgrimage begins along the wild southern cliff-line, extends to the western Brannock islets, and completes the circuit along the low-lying northern coast. The narrator explores the terrain and its features - its archaeology, botany and wildlife, its mythology, history and folklore - and elucidates the Irish placenames, telling stories that unlock memories of a turbulent past. In his minute observation of the natural world, and in his encompassing vision of the strange, stony landscape of the Aran Islands, Robinson fuses the poetic with the practical in a work of rare distinction.