Follow the Old Road

By turning off the main highway and discovering old routes, some of which have been travelled for thousands of years, you will see Ireland in an entirely different way. Follow the Old Road will take you on a tour of a variety of pathways from great river roads to lost railways.

Long before records began, travellers arriving on our shores found safe havens, natural harbours, the estuaries of rivers, and settled there, in sight of the ocean that had brought them to this land. Gradually they moved inland to more fertile soil, usually along the course of a river that provided both guidance and essential water supplies. In later centuries, great lords built their castles and monks their abbeys upriver, at the tidal limit. Some of the routes are still used today while others lie ignored and overgrown. Villages, and, later on, towns grew up around these castles and abbeys to serve their needs; towns that still prosper today.

Auteur

Jo Kerrigan grew up amid the wild beauties of West Cork; after working in the UK as writer, academic and journalist, she returned home to the place she loved best. She now writes regularly for a range of publications, including The Irish Examiner and the Evening Echo as well as international magazines, and operates a very popular online weblog.

Contenu

INTRODUCTION PAGE
CHAPTER I
THE GREAT RIVER ROADS
CHAPTER II
TRACE THE TRACK: PATHWAYS TO THE PAST
CHAPTER III
SLOW AND SERENE: THE CANAL AGE
CHAPTER IV
A FAR-OFF WHISTLE: LOST RAILWAYS
CHAPTER V
FOLLOW THE COAST: SEA ROADS