Transhumance and the Making of Ireland's Uplands, 1550-1900 - (Garden and Landscape History) by Eugene Costello (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

First full survey of how transhumance operated in Ireland from the sixteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth.

WINNER: American Conference for Irish Studies Donald Murphy Prize for Distinguished First Book 2021
Special Commendation, Publication Prize in Irish History, NUI Awards 2021

SHORTLISTED: European Association of Archaeologists Book Prize 2023

The rearing of cattle is today a fairly sedentary practice in Ireland, Britain and most of north-west Europe. But in the not-so-distant past it was common for many rural households to take their livestock to hill and mountain pastures for the summer. Moreover, ethnographic accounts suggest that a significant number of people would stay in seasonal upland settlements to milk the cows and produce butter and cheese. However, these movements all but died out in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, meaning that today transhumance is mainly associated with Alpine and Mediterranean landscapes.

This book is the first major interdisciplinary approach to the diversity and decline of transhumance in a northern European context. Focusing on Ireland from c.1550 to 1900, it shows that uplands were valuable resources which allowed tenant households to maintain larger herds of livestock and adapt to global economic trends. And it places the practice in a social context, demonstrating that transhumance required highly organized systems of common grazing, and that the care of dairy cows amounted to a rite of passage for young women in many rural communities.

Review Quotes

"Costello's well-presented and beautifully published study is a welcome addition to the increasing literature on transhumance"-- "BÉALOIDEAS: JOURNAL OF THE FOLKLORE OF IRELAND SOCIETY"

An exemplar of how historical landscapes should be studied, and informs our wider understanding of how social and economic processes played out in different regions.-- "LANDSCAPE HISTORY"

Costello's splendid opus . . . is highly worthwhile for an interdisciplinary readership and at the same time is a groundbreaking work for future cross-disciplinary research on the diversity of transhumance in Northwestern Europe and beyond.-- "AGRICULTURAL HISTORY"

Costello's wide-ranging research and incisive analysis on transhumance makes a valuable contribution to historical archaeology not just in Ireland, but in a wider European context...The great achievement of this book is that it brings to the fore a people and a way of life that has not been fully appreciated in Irish settlement studies hitherto, surely a commendable achievement.-- "AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW"

He makes a sensitive study of these landscapes drawing on archaeology, placenames, oral tradition, historic documents, and soil science.-- "ESTUDIOS IRLANDESES"

This is a remarkable study in terms of its chronological sweep, its use of diverse sources and its multi-disciplinary approach to the past.-- "IRISH HISTORICAL STUDIES"