Setting Foot on the Shores of Connemara and Other Writings

by Tim Robinson

This is a collection of writings by Tim Robinson. As well as Setting Foot on the Shores of Connemara, the work includes Place/Person/Book, Robinson's introduction to the Penguin Classics edition of Synge's The Aran Islands. These pieces are written from the perspective of cartography, landscape interpretation, mathematics, art and writing. With the author, the reader explores Connemara, the Burren and Aran Islands, experiencing his initial impression of these islands and his rationale for mapping them in the early 1970s.

Genres: Ireland

217 pages, Hardcover

First published April 18, 1997

About the author

Timothy Robinson (1935 – 2020) was an English writer, artist and cartographer. A native of Yorkshire, Robinson studied maths at Cambridge and then worked for many years as a visual artist in Istanbul, Vienna and London, among other places. In 1972 he moved to the Aran Islands, and in 1984 he settled in Roundstone, Connemara. In 1986 his first book, Stones of Aran: Pilgrimage, was published to great acclaim. The second volume of Stones of Aran, subtitled Labyrinth, appeared in 1995. His last work was the Connemara trilogy. He died of Covid-19 in 2020.

Reviews

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've heard Tim Robinson called Ireland's modern Thoreau, a claim I can't really endorse. (Way less nature writing, more cartography and anthropology. A bit of oral history for good measure. Excellent writing throughout.)

Although I didn't love this book, I loved parts of it and it's quite good. Robinson is at his strongest when he discusses landscapes; at his weakest, I think, with larger historical summaries. He is not a writer of history; he's a writer of land and its variety and meanings.

This book is one of the few instances when I'd recommend not reading from start to finish, but selecting a few essays based on your interest (oral history, literary history, placenames and language, etc.) and getting a taste.

I found a couple of the essays to be a bit of a slog - but I'm glad I stuck with it because some of the final essays are the best in the book. I personally recommend "Setting Foot on the Shores of Connemara" and "Listening to the Landscape." Above all, avoid the mistake I made and read it when you have the leisure and patience to take your time.

Tim Robinson conveys his inspiring philosophies beautifully - made me think for fun.