Irish Landscape books - worth a squint - nice presents or borrow from your library

I've just received my copy and am reading Valerie Hall's fascinating recently published book on the Irish Landscape
The fascinating story of Ireland's changing landscape begins over 11,000 years ago as the last Ice Age ended. Through a combination of authoritative text and photographs, this easily accessible book describes how the landscape of Ireland has been shaped. It tells the story of how natural forces as well as people influenced the landscape, its plants and animals, and traces the history of the wild places as well as the development of the farmed landscape. The photographs, many of which are of modern subjects, emphasise how the past Irish landscape continues to resonate today. - its says 'ere, DS 

• Publisher: The Collins Press
• Publication date: 10/04/2011
• ISBN-13: 9781848891159

It has a hard act to follow in Mitchell and Ryan's Reading the Irish landscape - which I've long treasured

The authors seek to produce a total insight which synthesises geology, geography and archaeology, with botany and zoology also covered to an extent. Remarkably, they shed stiumulating light on many aspects of the subject by comparisons with parallels elsewhere in the world; thus an early painting of aboriginal fishing in New South Wales, and an early 20th century photo of drying fish in Newfoundland, are set alongside a photograph of Aran Islanders launching a curragh. With this cross-disciplinary approach, technical language is both necessary and problematic; the solution constantly striven for is to keep jargon to a minimum and to define specialist terms as they arise in the text. To a large extent this works; the book can be read by the intelligent lay reader without constant referal to glossaries. 

The later section takes the reader through the effect of human activity on the landscape from prehistory to the present day, in a survey well-illustrated with aerial photos and contemporary prints. ...said one reader

ISBN 1860590551 9781860590559 0946172544 9780946172542

or Fred Aalen et al's Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape

harnessed the expertise of dozens of specialists to produce an exciting and pioneering study which has two basic aims: to increase understanding and appreciation of the landscape as an important element of national heritage and to provide a much needed basis for landscape conservation and planning. The complex assemblages of features, physical and human, which gives landscapes their distinctive regional character are examined in relation to man-made elements, such as field and settlement patterns, enclosure methods, rural buildings, demesnes, villages and small towns, archaeological/historical monuments, woodland, bogs, communications, and industrial archaeology.

ISBN:	9781859184592 1859184596