At the peak of Holywell Hill

In Ireland the sound of desolation is the sound of wind blowing through the gaps in a pylon, sometimes accompanied by the uneven rhythm of a loose cable slapping against the metal infrastructure. You will be exposed. You will be cold.

Near Londonderry tracks make their way to the peak of Holywell hill from both sides of the Border. The Border goes right over the crest. Just in the Northern side is a holy well. A small pool is lined in stones. It is the most lonely and humble pit I have ever seen. Pipes, the leftovers from the engineering work nearby, have been left too close to it. The fence dips and two old stones have been placed to help people step over and visit the well. This is a connection for the Map of Connections. (Ele 264m IC 38535 ITH 17005, Irish Grid)

My first map

I use a GPS device to mark my discoveries along the Border. Back at Queen’s University I upload the data from the GPS, convert it with Grid InQuest, and display it cartographically with ArcGIS. Lorraine Barry is the technician in the GIS studio and I must thank her for answering all my damn-fool questions. I have never studied geography and when I decided to re-map the Border I did not even know what the Irish Grid was. As a beginner with the hardware and the software my outputs are basic but I am getting better.


On this scale many of points are lost but my first map does give an idea of how much of the Border I have travelled so far. I have a ways to go yet, I realise. The three types of marking refer to the different maps I am producing. Finished maps will no longer feature the border or county boundaries.

Tim Robinson

One inspiration for my project is the West’s Tim Robinson. His maps of Connemara, the Burren and the Aran Islands are ultimately quiet traditional, based very closely on the Ordnance Survey, however they possess a fresh and beguiling human power. His Aran Mór map for example puts a name on virtually every crag and curve on its knobbly south face. These imply the kind of intense detail the islanders have come to known their island and suggest centuries of narrative. They speak of a landscape that is heartfelt by its human element. Loved or perhaps feared, but always known. You would not find these names on any other map. Robinson walks every mile of where he maps, tracing over the Ordnance Survey with updates, new information, and interests previously deemed unimportant by mapmakers. My interests are different but, like him, I will have to see everything with my own eyes. I wrote to him (my first fan letter) and in his reply Robinson advised me; “to do all that's necessary to preserve personal contact with the terrain on the one hand and the sheet of paper on the other.”