Customer Reviews

Celtic Journey: A Traveler's Guide to Ireland's Spiritual Legacy

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I searched in vain for a long time trying to find a book like this one. Simply put, it is, without a doubt, the best travel guide that I have ever purchased. The authors of the book are regular visitors to Ireland and even lead "Celtic Journeys" tours through the country. Because of this, they have a unique "insiders" perspective on the people and on the history of the Emerald Isle, in addition to a healthy respect for the land itself, and for its ancient traditions. Whether you are seeking out pre-Christian archeological sites (stone circles, burial mounds, ancient fortresses), or early Christian places of pilgrimmage (abbeys, monestaries, churches, grave architechture), this book will accommodate your travel needs. The book also contains many general maps, and plenty of basic travel information. As a side note, I appreciated the sensitive way the book was written: with a healthy dose of respect for the places and the people that you will encounter on your travels.

In preparing for an upcoming spiritual journey to Ireland, I've located a number of guidebooks and pilgrimage guides, but the Rabey's book is my favorite so far, focusing on the places in Ireland with special spiritual significance. Celtic Journeys tells the stories that ordinary travel books omit, but is not as overwhelming as others of its type. It's well organized, covers the all sites on my itinerary as well as some others. It's well- researched, well-written (except for some proofreading errors), and particularly well-organized. Personally I would like to see a more extensive bibliography, including the sources for the quotes used in the text. I realize that color photos would increase the cost of the book, but this book would benefit from color in place of black and white photos, not necessarily more photos, but larger and easier to see.

I would recommend this book to anyone thinking of visiting Ireland who wants to be prepared to visit the places of both Christian and pre-Christian spiritual significance. Although I want to keep my luggage light, I don't think I can leave home without this one.

Too brief for those needing more depth, but a briskly written and well-organized primer that combines thoughtful overviews of pre-Christian and Catholic backgrounds to Irish sites and shrines. The directions, details about specific places, and the general travel info at the back of this slim book (about 130 pp. of text proper excluding such addenda) are too generalized to truly direct a traveler to locales on notoriously difficult to navigate rural Irish roads.

The book, for all its brevity, seems to be padded by this often superficial supplemental info. I would have preferred more in-depth coverage of the sites and how-to get there, etc. in the text proper. The book does skim a lot and then repeats such skimming in the listings of sites at the back of the book--often such information's a bit too generalized compared to what a tour book-guide would list. Therefore, although the Rabeys' book's less dated than tourist guides, it is also less practical. It's good to spark curiousity more than show how such reveries about where to go and what to do can be fulfilled in detail. Still, it's more than a history of such places, if less than a complete guide such as one (a newer effort) I recommend below to accompany the Rabey's introductory survey.

I would supplement this not only with, as the authors advise, a navigator with a Michelin map open at all times, but a more detailed AA Road Atlas or perhaps even topographic Ordnance Survey maps of smaller areas. The maps and directions in this book are often too general. The trouble is this book gives the same island map with nearly no helps; as the book goes along they reprint the map with stars for inviting locales but more helpful by far would have been insets, directions to the less easily found sites, and details about hours, fees, and websites.

So, this is best for armchair travelers planning a journey. I'd use this to whet appetites and take notes while planning itineraries. Two of these are appended that show that the authors know what they speak of, as tour guides themselves. These hit the high points for a week or two-week stay. But, the time estimates need to be taken with some caution, as the roads can be wearying if you must drive them and not a coach driver of your cushioned bus. Also, anybody on their own wandering about looking for some of these remoter sites will spend much more time than anticipated by such tour planners--either getting lost, distracted by other tempting vistas, discouraged by weather changes, and/or needing to stop for refreshment at a pub or two, inevitably...

Save room for a detailed guide by (and here's one suggested in their recommended readings) Peter Harbison to sites and state monuments throughout Ireland, or the excellent, much more recent and spiritually relevant Traveller's Guide to Sacred Ireland by Cary Meehan. A bitter antidote to the tour-group mindthink is James Charles Roy's waspish but accurately observed memoir of being a tour guide to his fellow Yanks in a rapidly changing Ireland, "The Back of Beyond." The Rabeys do a service, and not only for rank beginners; their affection for many Irish rugged treasures comes through sensitively, as they summarize useful information, leavened with their own reflections, well-chosen quotes (save a couple from kitschy or hackneyed sources), and a knowledge of how much to tell beginning pilgrims and tourists to such points of interest, without boring or confusing newcomers to Irish culture.

This book was very helpful in finding non-conventional places in Ireland. Many of the sites listed were difficult to find yet well worth it and in most cases tourist free. This book is perfect for someone looking for more of the hidden, spiritual places in Ireland.