The second edition of Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape is a magnificently illustrated, beautifully written, and thoroughly updated introduction to the hidden riches of the Irish landscape. Topics include archaeology, field and settlement patterns, houses, demesnes, villages and small towns, monuments, woodland, bogs, roads, canals, and a host of other features. The Atlas combines superbly chosen illustrations and cartography with a text amenable to a general reader. Hundreds of maps, diagrams, photographs, and paintings present accessible information suitable for any school, college, or home. New content in the contemporary section takes into account the Celtic Tiger and explores six fresh case studies – Tory Island (Donegal), the Wicklow Uplands, Inistiogue (County Kilkenny), Aughris (County Sligo), Clonfert (County Galway), and Point Lance in Newfoundland. This second edition of the award-winning Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape continues to increase the visibility of the landscape within national heritage while establishing a proper basis for conservation and planning. ‘Users will find an abundance of information on everything Ireland here, including archaeology, farming, transportation, mining, and castles and churches… An all-around and pleasurable book to both consult in research or browse.’―Shannon Graff Hysell, American Reference Books Annual vol43:2012 ‘The authors offer fresh insights about the Irish past and important ideas for landscape conservation and planning. There is much for every reader interested in Ireland. Essential - all levels/libraries.’―C.W Wood Jr., Choice Magazine vol 49:11:2012 (This title received an Outstanding rating by the 2012 University Press Books committee) ….‘Gorgeous, useful, authoritative, updated atlas’ ―Steve Norman, University Press Books for Public & Secondary School Libraries, 2012 ‘Remarkable book… A rich archaeological history going back 9,000 years… This atlas sets new standard for landscape appreciation and should be required reading for any planning or environmental history course as well as policy makers.’―Iris Morgan, Association of Canadian Map Libraries & Archives Bulletin, vol 141:2012 ‘The authors offer fresh insights about the Irish past and important ideas foe landscape conservation and planning. Ther is much for every reader interested in Ireland. Essential - all levels/libraries.’―C.W Wood Jr., Choice Magazine vol 49:11:2012 ‘Remarkable book… A rich archaeological history going back 9,000 years… This atlas sets new standard for landscape appreciation and should be required reading for any planning or environmental history course as well as policy makers.’―Iris Morgan, Association of Canadian Map Libraries & Archives Bulletin, vol 141:2012 Lavish in form and erudite in content. There are sections on bogs and demesnes, fields and villages, mining and the destruction of antiquities. The Irish landscape, now in places under grave ecological threat, has always been a visual palimpsest of the country's turbulent history, a text to be deciphered as much as to be savoured. This beautifully illustrated essay interweaves geology, archaeology, demography, social history and a host of other disciplines, moving from tourism to the rural poor, peat to parks, vernacular rural architecture to landscape management. It demonstrates the point that, rather like literary studies, there is almost nothing that geography isn't about; but after productions as ambitious as this, literary studies had better look to its laurels. -- Terry Eagleton, Times Literary Supplement A remarkable multidisciplinary survey of the landscape that shaped Irish folklore, literature, and visual art - focusing on the seven centuries of colonial rule. This intelligently illustrated atlas provides a social, archaeological, and geological history of the land and a polemic against Ireland's failure to protect its rural region. -- Vera Kreilkamp, Lingua Franca Anyone interested in Ireland, especially the Irish countryside, will find this attractive volume anything from engaging to indispensable. A main purpose of the book - undertaken by two professors at Trinity College, Dublin and Whelan, Ireland's foremost historical geographer - is to be a warning about the degradation of Ireland's rural heritage. But the book, using up-to-the-minute computer cartography and drawing on a variety of disciplines, is also a vivid, colourful evocation and analysis of the physical and human features of a superb landscape. -- Toronto Globe and Mail, October 11, 1997 F.H.A. Aalen is a professor emeritus of Geography in the School of Natural Sciences at Trinity College Dublin. Kevin Whelan , widely regarded as Ireland's most important historical geographer, teaches at Boston College, Massachussets. Matthew Stout , the cartographic editor, is a lecturer at Trinity College, Dublin.