Great works: Archipelagic romanticisms on the Connemara coast

Abstract

This article explores Maria Edgeworth’s letters on her 1833 Connemara tour as a starting point to investigate the connection between Ireland’s western district and the Scottish Highlands in the cultural imagination. Through Edgeworth’s acquaintance with and interest in the works of the Scottish engineer Alexander Nimmo, I go on to establish the historical links between Scotland and coastal infrastructural developments along Ireland’s Atlantic seaboard. I offer a focused study of the creation of the fishing village of Roundstone by analysing an archive of texts, maps, reports, and images to highlight the ways in which colonial infrastructures, coastal community building, and the knowledge production of natural history are grounded in an archipelagic practice. Ultimately, this article reveals how a turn to coastal infrastructure developments brings into focus the multiple temporalities of archipelagic romanticisms.