Ward & Lock's Pictorial Guide to Connemara c.1890

What is inside?

Ward and Lock's Pictorial and Descriptive Guide to Connemara and the West of Ireland was published in London circa 1890 and can be viewed as a continuation of a myriad of books published in Ireland for the more intrepid foreign or Irish traveller throughout the nineteenth-century. However, with the advent of widespread rail communication in Ireland, the Pictorial & Descriptive Guide would appear to have filled a niche for a new type of guide appealing to a new type of tourist. From the 1870s onwards travel was possible across the length and breadth of Ireland via the numerous railway companies that were then plying their trade. Although the excursions advertised were 'reasonably' affordable the Pictorial & Descriptive Guide would undoubtedly have only appealed to the relatively affluent, mainly English, gentleman traveller with both time and money at his disposal. As the Pictorial & Descriptive Guide itself states, the purposes of the publication was to appeal to the traveller who desired to avoid the beach esplanades and the usual paraphernalia of Victoria seaside resorts, such as spas and the taking of chalybeate waters. So what does the Pictorial & Descriptive Guide to offer today's reader? The publication contains some three hundred pages detailing thirteen 'tours' in Connemara and the Guide presents in detail the precise modes, methods and costs of transit from London or Stranraer to Dublin and thence to Galway. At each stage of the journey from Dublin to Galway, the Pictorial & Descriptive Guide describes the towns, villages, views and brief history that the passengers could view from the comfort of their Midland Great Western train carriage. Intended for the independent traveller, the Pictorial & Descriptive Guide provides names, addresses and tariffs for all the hotels and reasonable hostelries that the tourist might need. Many advertisements for these establishments can also be found in the Guide and these make for interesting reading. The Pictorial & Descriptive Guide would also appeal to outdoor pursuits enthusiasts, detailing, as it does, the fishing and hunting that could be had throughout Connemara in the 1890s. The Guide also elucidates for the tourist the botanical specimens and antiquarian relics that could be seen at every stage of each of the thirteen described tours. This digital edition of the Pictorial & Descriptive Guide allows the reader to search for all aspects of personal interest, which might vary from train times, postal collection points, cost of train and boat travel to the descriptive text of the various places visited in the tours.

Related Products