Product Description
Written by Ireland's greatest field botanist and first published in 1937, this enduring celebration of the Irish landscape is the result of five years of weekends spent walking a mazy 5,000 miles across hills and bogs, swimming through flooded caverns, staying out all night on islands, sifting fossil bones and exploring cattle-tramped tombs. That was when conservation was still in the future, farmers welcomed rambling strangers, bogs were intact, bungalows, cars, ESB poles and chain saws were absent, and the countryside was largely tourist-free. Praeger's journey began in Donegal and ended in Kerry. Along the way he discovered much, including the passage tombs of Carrowkeel in Sligo, which he was the first to enter. This is an absolute must for lovers of natural history.
This is a paperback reprint edition, 1980, from Figgis, Dublin, binding tight, with photographs and illustrations. index.
There is a tidemark water stain ( external only ) on back cover - internally very good, fold out map of Ireland inside the back covers.
Praeger was born in County Down in 1865. He was librarian of The National Library of Ireland, a geologist, botanist, and took part in may archaeological investigations. In this ramble through Ireland he looks at the wildlife, botany, geology, and antiquities of the many places he has visited. Sections include Donegal, volcanic North, Silurian region, limestone plateau, Connemara and Mayo hills, land of naked limestone, central plain. region of the pale, Wicklow highlands, South East, Cork to Limerick, and Kerry highlands.
First published 1947.