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31. Perpetuating the Survey
How a National Survey Became a National Information System The ancient walls still enclosed Derry, but…
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30. Contours and the Shape of Ireland
How contours transformed the map from art into measurement. On a small hill in a remote…
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29. Appendix: Poolbeg and the Evolution of Ireland’s Vertical Datum
This appendix expands upon the themes introduced in “The Sea Was Not Level” for readers interested…
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29. The Sea Was Not Level
How surveyors learned the sea was not level. Standing on a beach, the horizon stretches unbroken…
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28. Crow’s Feet and Devil’s Marks
Benchmarks, Folklore and the Measurement of Height Across Ireland, a curious symbol appears on walls, buildings,…
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27b. Thomas Aiskew Larcom (1801–1879)
Royal Engineer whose defining ability was to turn the separate worlds of surveying, cartography, naming, and…
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27a. John O’Donovan (1806–1861)
Scholar who gave Ireland’s map its language. A companion essay to “Names on the Map: Authority,…
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27. Names on the Map
Authority, Language and the Ordnance Survey The six-inch survey’s standardisation of Irish place-names into English was…
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26. Memory and the Map
The surveyors moved through a landscape haunted by the remnants of an older Gaelic order. They…
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25. Townlands and Boundaries
Ireland’s townlands were defined and surveyed two hundred years ago, becoming part of the administrative and…
