The Pathless Land: Finding a Way Across Ireland <\/p>\n
Author: Tim Hannigan<\/p>\n
ISBN-13: 978-1035908455<\/p>\n
Publisher: Apollo<\/p>\n
Guideline Price: \u00a325; 368pp<\/p>\n
The raison d\u2019\u00eatre of Tim Hannigan\u2019s travel book is to unravel the mystery of why so much Irish countryside is inaccessible compared with England and Wales, where footpaths stretch across fields and moors. Why, he wonders, has Ireland never had a similar network of paths and now has the worst provision for countryside access in Europe?<\/p>\n
To find answers, Hannigan, originally from Cornwall and now living in Co Galway, sets out on a 678km diagonal walk across Ireland, choosing an arbitrary route from Dunmore Head on the Dingle peninsula to the Ards peninsula. As he crosses mountain ranges, bogland and open countryside \u2013 frequently camping overnight \u2013 his quest is the search for paths.<\/p>\n
The author\u2019s b\u00eate noire is walking on tarmac roads, which leads to blisters, throbbing feet, stinging toes and aching heels, impeding his progress. But he perseveres, meeting a cross-section of people in chance encounters, which often prompt digressions. The book extensively covers in explanatory detail historic events including the Cromwellian settlements, early years of the Ordnance Survey in Ireland, the Famine of 1845-52 and the post-1880 Land Acts. <\/p>\n
Hannigan\u2019s desire line eventually brings him to Burr Point in Co Down, the most eastern extremity of Ireland. He feels that the northern countryside is \u201cever so slightly less hostile to a walker\u201d since he discovers many waymarked paths. However, he finds it extremely difficult to prove the existence of an old right of way in Ireland, no matter how long people have been walking on it. And while it remains a vexed question, he brings considerable light to bear on what is a complex topic that raises passionate feelings. <\/p>\n
Several times he breaks his journey to meet his family, or to attend meetings of Keep Ireland Open, while also delving into conversations with others who illuminate the subject. On one occasion, at what he calls an \u201cunconference\u201d of informal discussion on the theme of \u201clegacy\u201d issues about countryside access, a woman informs him: \u201cThe English have always had their land \u2026 so maybe it doesn\u2019t matter to them if other people walk all over it. But we had it taken away from us and we had to fight to get it back, so it\u2019s different here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul Clements is an author and travel writer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pathless Land: Finding a Way Across Ireland Author: Tim Hannigan ISBN-13: 978-1035908455 Publisher: Apollo Guideline Price: \u00a325;…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6489,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-627188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-book-reviews","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}