The Most Beautiful Villages of Ireland - Hardcover

Christopher Fitz-Simon; Hugh Palmer

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0500019983 ISBN 13: 9780500019986

Publisher: Thames & Hudson, 2000

Synopsis

This work presents images and impressions of numerous villages in Ireland which as well as being beautiful are working, living communities. The book follows the divisions of ancient provinces - Ulster, Leinster, Connacht, and Muster - and uncovers various rural beauty spots - some well-known, others less so. Places featured include the coastal villages of Cork, Ardagh in County Longford - where Oliver Goldsmith was inspired to write "She Stoops to Conquer", Roscommon and Galway, in Connacht and the villages of Donegal. This visual and verbal record to Irish villages also contains a guide to various sites of interest, markets, hotels, and restaurants.

About this title

Review:

Many a travel picture book is designed to make us dream, and like its equivalent in the cookery field, we can often gaze lovingly at things that we will have no experience of. Christopher Fitz-Simon's The Most Beautiful Villages of Ireland, however, produces an immediate effect that was probably the author's prime intention: within mere pages of this sumptuously illustrated book, the reader is filled with the keenest desire to visit these exquisitely picturesque locales in Ireland. As a picture of the architectural and bucolic delights of the country, Fitz-Simon's book is thoroughly beguiling. From astonishing spreads of ancient Ireland (such as the stone circles of Drombeg, County Cork, and the 100 ton standing stone at Browneshill) to the quirky eccentricities of such towns as Allihies and Eyeries (in which all the buildings are painted in bright, clashing primary colours), we are taken on a voyage that is almost as stimulating as the real thing. The photographs by Hugh Palmer perfectly complement Fitz-Simon's sympathetic text, and are not afraid to utilise the massive double-page spreads in a radical way, rather than simply record the various sites. Castle Island, with its striking tower, is seen from a distance, while a great expanse of turbulent blue water covers two pages in the foreground, and the Italianate exoticism of Glengariff is conveyed by a moody shot of the bay and its small boats, overlooked by a balustrade and a bare-breasted stone nymph. Along with such panoramic views, there is a host of more arcane details, all lovingly recorded: a two-faced Celtic stone figure on Boa Island in Lough Erne which has mystified scholars, or the trompe-l'oeil façade of a shop in Roundstone, County Galway, where everything in the window is the result of a painter's brush. The interiors, too, are full of charm: Lissadell House in Rosses Point transports us into another century. But beware: buying this book will almost certainly send you to your local travel agent. --Barry Forshaw

About the Author:

Christopher Fitz-Simon is an Irish author whose books include The Arts in Ireland and The Most Beautiful Villages of Ireland. Hugh Palmer is one of Britain's leading photographers of architecture and gardens. His books include The Most Beautiful Villages of Greece, The Most Beautiful Villages of Provence, and The Most Beautiful Villages of Ireland.

About this edition

• Publisher: Thames & Hudson
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0500019983
• ISBN 13: 9780500019986
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208