Tim Robinson Archive - Exploring the Landscape

Tim Robinson

In 2014, the social cartographer and writer Tim Robinson generously donated his archive to the James Hardiman Library.  This beautiful collection includes a comprehensive index of the town-lands of Connemara and the Aran Islands, several hundred maps, and almost 80 boxes of manuscript material.  Compiled over several years of walks through the landscapes of Connemara and the Aran Islands, the town-lands index records the geological, historical, and ecclesiastical features of each town-land.  It also notes local stories, legends, and anecdotes, and credits the local people who have given him the information.  A line can be traced between this index and Robinson’s maps, with many of the features that are described, plotted.  Tim’s papers, documenting his research, writings, and engagement with the local community, form a substantial part of the collection. 

To celebrate this remarkable archive, a new book entitled Connemara and Elsewhere, edited by Professor Jane Conroy, was published by the Royal Irish Academy in association with NUI Galway. Also, Vincent Woods, host of RTE Radio's Arts Tonight series, visited the Hardiman Library to view and explore the archive as well as visit and interview Tim Robinson himself at his home in Roundstone, Co. Galway.

You can click here to listen back to the Arts Tonight special documentary on Tim Robinson, the man and the archive.

'Connemara and Elsewhere' - Essays in honour of Tim Robinson

The Interpreting Landscape exhibition, opening up the Tim Robinson archive, continues throughout January at the Hardiman Building and allows you to visually explore some highlights from the Robinson archive that tracks his career and achievements, from his cartography of the Aran Islands and the Burren, to his celebrated trilogy of books on Connemara and also to learn of related collections within the archives of the Hardiman Library.