A biographical approach to Ireland’s landscape: creating a new methodology

Abstract

ABSTRACT Landscape biographies have gained in popularity as a holistic assessment tool to enable local government planning and promote a community’s identity. To date, the approach has never been applied to the Republic of Ireland’s unique historical and cultural landscape. This paper addresses this omission by building upon former biographical approaches in other countries and adapting and applying them to the region of Kilrossanty in County Waterford as a case study. The new methodology intends to complement the current official approach to landscape assessment in Ireland which focuses solely on Landscape Character Assessments. The paper argues that the complexities of the Irish historical background require a more layered approach for which a biography is more appropriate. By conducting transdisciplinary fieldwork, an Irish landscape biographical model has been produced focusing upon the landscape’s structural transformations and identification of its authors who have been categorised to better reflect the societal and political strata of this previously colonised country.