Ireland in Brick and Stone: The Island's History in Its Buildings

Ireland in Brick and Stone takes 50 buildings and other man-made constructions from different parts of Ireland and uses them to illustrate the history of the island over 1,500 years. All but three of the buildings are still surviving and they offer us a very personal way into history by teasing out the context in which each building was constructed, the uses to which it was put and the people associated with it.

For example, Rockfleet Castle is a tower house in Co. Mayo, typical of a kind of...