New map - 'Blackstairs, Mount Leinster & The Barrow Valley'

BarryD

This is by way of information rather than advertising. A variety of people who visit here might like to note that I have recently published a new map, 'Blackstairs, Mount Leinster & The Barrow Valley'. This map is at 1:25,000 scale printed both sides of the sheet with an overlap at the Scollagh Gap (Scullogue Gap). It is printed on Enduro 100gsm paper, a tough water resistant and tearproof paper and retails at €9.95.

The mapping essentially covers from Bagenalstown/Clonegal in the north to Ballywilliam in the south and from Bunclody in the east to Graignamanagh in the west. So it covers the main group of hills and the adjacent Barrow river valley. Of interest to walkers, anglers, pilots, cyclists, paddlers as well as those just with an interest in the countryside and these localities.

It is two years since our last new publication and a lot of work had gone into this map. The region has considerable cultural and historical merit and I hope this map will help to both inform and stimulate an appreciation of this. Those with an interest in the placenames of the district should look up http://www.eastwestmapping.ie/placenames-heritage#Blackstairs1 Here you will find my personal interpretation of some of the principal placenames of the region based on considerable research: including old publications, research by others in recent decades and many recent enquiries on the ground. As with my other work, I try to record different versions of a name but place the emphasis on what's used locally where I can establish this. I consider that the people who have been born into these districts and lived/ worked there all their lives are in the best position to advise what features are called.

Part of my rationale in producing this mapping is to assist with encouraging an interest & appreciation of the area and with regard to these uplands in particular. The hills here are narrow in extent and are frequently under some degree of threat from inappropriate development. In the past this has included the emasculation of Mount Leinster by RTE with it's masts and access roads, the planting by the Department of Forestry of the White Mountain district to the summit ridge. The mining of Slievebawn was resisted and I think a number of telecommunication masts. The latest threats come from mining again, gold & lithium and from the burgeoning windfarm industry. Despite that, these uplands retain much of interest and value. There are numerous boreens accessing the hills and one can easily step back to a different era within a matter of minutes of leaving the tarmac road. Due to their proximity to the Barrow river and early settlement, it is thought that there are a considerable number of unrecorded archaelogical sites. It's my personal view that we need to value and maintain these reservoirs of 'wilderness' and support the traditional farm practices of those that live here.

This map is available now from http://www.eastwestmapping.ie for delivery by post (postage & packing charge) and will be in our usual stockists in Dublin etc. - as of now Great Outdoors & Outdoor Adventure Store should have some stock. I hope to have it available for purchase locally in the south east in the coming weeks.

hmmm

Where to next after this Barry?

BarryD

hmmm wrote: »

Where to next after this Barry?

Hard to know, have to sit down and a good think through it. Fieldwork is the key to producing a map that more accurately reflects what the end user will encounter on the ground. Fieldwork however takes time and physical effort. There'd be the guts of a years work overall in the map above with an average return of between €5-€6 per map. You don't have to be great at maths to see that this is not very sustainable in terms of providing an income..

To some extent, we have relied on other related work for tourism and government agencies to help cross subsidise the mapping above, in that this work 'pays the bills'. However in this climate, as I'm sure you'll understand, a lot of this work has been cut back. So we'll have to see.

dogmatix

I'd be interested in a fifth map covering the parts of south wicklow and north wexford not already covered - like wicklow head in the east and Carrick hill and Avoxca to the south, Tinahely and so on. This area of wicklow is not so hilly or as well trodden as the rest so any map covering this area would be more of a niche map than the other four but there are some lovely walks and terrain to be found there.

Judge

Thanks Barry - ordered along with the two updated Wicklow maps. Looking forward to seeing them.

dogmatix wrote: »

I'd be interested in a fifth map covering the parts of south wicklow and north wexford not already covered - like wicklow head in the east and Carrick hill and Avoxca to the south, Tinahely and so on. This area of wicklow is not so hilly or as well trodden as the rest so any map covering this area would be more of a niche map than the other four but there are some lovely walks and terrain to be found there.

+1 on this for me too.

I'd also suggest a map of the Cooley's: they are covered to some extent in the Tain Way guide but it would be nice to get a proper (i.e. with grid lines etc.) and expanded version.

Edited to add: by the way Barry, did you see this article on the Irish Times last month?

BarryD

Thanks, no I hadn't seen that, so enjoyed the piece The number of people who get exercised over this is quite interesting. It's easily the one placename issue that I get most queries on. I've covered the issue well enough in my piece on placenames http://www.eastwestmapping.ie/placenames-heritage#p10 just scroll down. It's also dealt with well by Liam Price on page 230 of The Placenames of County Wicklow where he identifies it as on the 'northern side' of the mountain and that the name is also attached to the brook now called the Ballynastockan Brook. The latter information is in OSI's own namebooks and the OS Letters... maybe they should read them?

To answer above, I've been thinking of Cooley alright. Slieve Bloom is also an area that I'd like to record. But as I say above, much and all as I appreciate the support of people here etc., one has to sell a lot of maps to just pay the bills.

Orion

That's a great link Barry - interesting read.

Now that Reids and Great Outdoors have started selling your maps that's got to help. I mentioned them to the guys in Portwest in Dublin too and sold your praises so maybe they'll pick them up as well. For our county shield (scouting) I'm taking a group on a hike from Knockrea to Larch Hill - they're just given the start and end grid refs. I've told them that the Dublin/North Wicklow map has the full route - otherwise they need 56 and 50 from the OS series. Word is spreading

Question though - why use a slightly different grid reference yourself? Is the a-z reference copyrighted by the OS?

BarryD

Thanks Orion, I appreciate that. Re your question on grids - the grid on our mapping is the Irish Grid, same as OSI. I just insert more zeros and a leading number if you like, to give the full reference, which is sometimes given on GPS readouts. The 'a-z' system is based on breaking the country up into squares of 100km x 100km and assigning a letter to each square. This means that the leading numbers can be dropped and the grid reference shortened - it's a mixed alpha numeric system, whereas the full reference is purely numeric.

You have to think back to the days when you did co-ordinate geometry in school. The two axis with an origin of 0,0 - ring a bell? If you recall, there is part of this grid where both x & y co-ordinates are positive and others where they are negative etc. Well, for practical use, you need positive National Grid co-ords, so therefore the origin (the 0,0 bit) is set off the south west coast of Ireland, out in the Atlantic. This results in say a co-ord reading for Tonelagee of say 308504 metres east (the x co-ord) and say 201593 metres north (the y co-ord). In the 'a-z' system as you call call it, the leading hundred thousand figure, the 3 and 2 are replaced by a letter.

Alun

Orion wrote: »

Question though - why use a slightly different grid reference yourself? Is the a-z reference copyrighted by the OS?

They're the same thing really. Each letter corresponds to a 100x100km grid square, and so replaces the first digit (printed smaller) of the numbers along the edge of the E-W maps. Basically then just ignore the first digit (100km) and the last 3 (1m), and you have the same numbers as are printed along the bottom of the OSi maps.

The idea of grid squares is to make grid references (slightly) shorter. The 'full' version of Irish Grid dispenses with the grid square idea and is a 100% numerical reference.

There's a small inset on (some) of the maps which cover more than one grid square showing where the intersection of the grid squares is, otherwise there's an indication in the Legend showing which grid square is relevant to that map.

Barry, maybe it would be an idea to place a marker on the edge of the map where one grid square transitions to another to make this clearer?

EDIT: Barry got in while I was typing this