The Aran Islands, in Galway Bay off the west coast of Ireland, are a
unique geological and cultural landscape, and for centuries their stark
beauty and their inhabitants' traditional way of life have attracted
pilgrims from abroad. The Aran Islands, in Galway Bay off the west coast
of Ireland, are a unique geological and cultural landscape, and for
centuries their stark beauty and their inhabitants' traditional way of
life have attracted pilgrims from abroad. After a visit with his wife in
1972, Tim Robinson moved to the islands, where he started making maps
and gathering stories, eventually developing the idea for a cosmic
history of Árainn, the largest of the three islands. Pilgrimage is the
first of two volumes that make up Stones of Aran, in which Robinson
maps the length and breadth of Árainn. Here he circles the entire
island, following a clockwise, sunwise path in quest of the "good step,"
in which walking itself becomes a form of attention and contemplation.
Like Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and Bruce Chatwin's In
Patagonia, Stones of Aran is not only a meticulous and mesmerizing
study of place but an entrancing and altogether unclassifiable work of
literature. Robinson explores Aran in both its elemental and mythical
dimensions, taking us deep into the island's folklore, wildlife, names,
habitations, and natural and human histories. Bringing to life the
ongoing, forever unpredictable encounter between one man and a given
landscape, Stones of Aran discovers worlds.
Robinson's voyage continues in Stones of Aran: Labyrinth
