Lough Swilly
A living landscape
Andrew Cooper editor
‘Up-to-date coverage, beautiful photographs and flowing narrative … it elevates the lough onto an international stage, underlining the importance of its cultural legacy and habitats … covers an impressive array of topics … there is a remarkable evenness in the writing style … the text is dotted with many fascinating factual nuggets, which make the book immensely readable … frequent colour diagrams, old maps and photographs add depth at appropriate points. Arguably it is the strong integration of themes and the ties drawn between past and present that are the book’s greatest strengths … The volume will have wide appeal. It is both a coffee table-style book that can be picked up and browsed at leisure, and a well-informed reference text that provides lucid context to ongoing management debates … Anyone, in fact, with an interest in the lough, however peripheral, or in Irish landscape history could not fail to be impressed. The production standards are high throughout … This highly informative and fascinating volume is a real gem', Helen M. Roe, Irish Geography (2013).
‘This attractive-looking collection brings together a team of geologists, scientists, archaeologists, conservationists and other researchers to produce a wide-ranging scholarly publication on Lough Swilly and its surrounding area in north Dongal. Its eleven chapters investigate such diverse topics as geology and geomorphology, history and archaeology, geography, aquaculture and conservation. The stunning photography on almost every page makes this book a pleasure to open … Lough Swilly is a beautifully presented book with fantastic photography and snippets of information on a wide range of topics', Adrian Grant, History Ireland (November/December 2011).
‘[Contains] a wealth of information by specialists … there is a masterful range of chapters on the maritime culture associated with fishing and marine resources in the present day … a range of disciplines have come together to publish a well illustrated volume whose audience will be a wide church of specialists and the public alike. The photographs are lavish and ample space is given to make the most of them … This is a good book!', Niall Brady, Journal of the Medieval Settlement Reserach Group (2012).
‘The individual expertise of each writer and the excellent photographs, maps and diagrams very beautifully integrated with the text, including maps, statistics and stunning landscape and wildlife photographs, provide clear presentations of information on the natural and human developments of the area. The chapters unfold in a logical order providing high quality detail in a very accessible form', Claire Foley, Landscapes (2012).
‘Lough Swilly is here richly portrayed as one of the great maritime cultural regions of Ireland … This handsomely illustrated collection of essays tells two main stories. One relates to the physical nature of the lough and its environs as it cuts through a diverse geological base … the other story relates to humans and to human intervention … This is a serious book with a commendable amount of academic apparatus … [it] ends with an important and thought-provoking chapter devoted to the question of managing Lough Swilly … A plea is made powerfully for a balanced and integrated management programme, without which future generations might inherit a landscape of conflict and degeneration', Howard Clarke, Irish Arts Review (Winter 2011).
‘I must commend the Four Courts Press production of the book on Lough Swilly. It’s an historically and geographically fascinating part of an intriguing county … there’s access to a huge volume of information on the lough. What really makes the book so pleasing is the amount of space given to photographs, and some very clear maps, too … many are absolutely stunning', Hugh Oram, Books Ireland (February 2012).
