Michael Fewer has assembled descriptions of pedestrian travel throughout Ireland during the past 200 years. He takes the reader on a journey through time and the Irish countryside.

Laced with history, wildlife, antiquities, and politics, this book offers captivating insights into memorable locations, experiences, and moments during walking tours of Ireland. Through a selection of articles, excerpts, letters, and journal entries, we experience the beauty of high moors and mountains, see the conditions of the peasantry improve from poverty to wealth, mark the evolution of politics and society, and, most of all, enjoy the pleasures of exploring Ireland on foot. Here one will find Samuel Johnson's hilarious description of a walk that ended with a fall into the River Liffey, and Eric Newby's account of a pilgrimage ascent of Croagh Patrick. Here are tales by such authors as John Keats, Paul Theroux, and Colm Toibin about the antiquities of the countryside, drinking and singing, botany, the delights of mountain climbing, superstition and folklore, and the quality of inns. This anthology will take the reader on a colorful and eventful journey through time and the lovely and sometimes harsh Irish countryside.