Top 10 literary trips in Ireland – tour the landscapes that inspired authors and poets – Independent.ie

Guidebooks. Lists. Instagram. Magazine features. When we plan or seek inspiration for trips, these are the tools we instinctively reach for. Now that travel can only take place imaginatively, however, what about turning over a new leaf?

Literally. From Chandlers LA to Zadie Smiths London or Wordsworths Lake District, stories and poems can provide a deeper and more personal perspective on place than any guidebook.

Were not talking crass cash-ins here (Behan on a tea towel, or Dracula on a mug), but the real deal, the works themselves; the way they draw from their settings and bring them to life. Think of E.M. Forsters Italy, Hemmingways Spain, or the trips inspired by Elizabeth Gilberts Eat, Pray, Love (literarytraveller.com is a great website for a deeper dive).

Place is everything to a writer, says author Brian Leyden. It shapes the climate of your being, your imaginative concerns, your personal weather. Writing is always about your relationship to the place youre from, getting to grips with the particulars of the world around you.

While wed love to be off exploring Orhan Pamuks Istanbul, Jane Austens Hampshire or browsing the bookshops of the world, really, the most perfect literary landscape begins right on our doorsteps. Yeats Country and Joyces Dublin you know, but here weve tried to pick a list that tiptoes beyond the obvious, hopefully prompting a few new reads... and of course, a few future trips.

Why: Sligo may try to claim Rooney as its own, but her smash hit Normal People spends far more time in Dublin. Her first book, Conversations with Friends, is also set in the capital and strongly features the Liberties, where the main character lives (though, if youve ever rented in Dublin, youll weep at the frequent mentions of her rent-free flat). Rooneys Dublin isnt romantic. Its full of traffic on the quays, faces in bus windows and the veil of rain that moved around under the streetlights, but its the final scene, set in St Stephens Green, that I adored: Entering the park through a side gate the noise of traffic seemed to turn itself down, like it caught in the bare branches and dissolved in air. James Joyce and Bram Stoker may claim Dublins past, but Rooney is the voice of its present. NB

Lockdown links: Tiny Marrowbone in the Liberties is stacked to the brim with secondhand books and will hopefully reopen in December; marrowbone.ie

Why: Step through the wardrobe, past those fur coats, and emerge into... East Belfast? Surprise! CS Lewis was born here in 1898, and today a CS Lewis Trail retracing his life ranges from a sculpture park depicting scenes from The Chronicles of Narnia to Jacks Caf (the name he was known by) at the Eastside Gallery, from the old lamp in Campbell College and lion-shaped doorknob at the former rectory beside St Marks Church said to have provided inspiration for his work. I have seen landscapes, notably in the Mourne Mountains and southwards which under a particular light made me feel that at any moment a giant might raise his head over the next ridge, he wrote in On Stories, and travellers in Northern Ireland will also find echoes of Cair Parval in Dunluce Castle on the Causeway Coast, and Rostrevor Forest in Co Down. PC

Lockdown links: Download the CS Lewis trail at communitygreenway.co.uk/trails. An annual CS Lewis festival runs in November, too. facebook.com/CSLewisFestival

Why: Galway supplies a safe space for me, the poet once said in an interview with this paper, where I want to be, where I love to be, surrounded by sea. For me, Rita Ann Higgins punchy, anarchic, riffing, witty, tell-it-like-it-is poetry reflects Galways bohemian spirit, cut through with a ruthless eye for detail. When I squeezed in a city break between lockdowns this year, I went looking for one of her books in Kennys. Her latest collection, Pathogens Love a Patsy, deals with the pandemic... and problems that havent gone away during it. Elders in nursing homes were / numbers to be counted - / but do they really count when push comes to shove? one line reads. You wonder why the person in the mirror / with the broken capillaries / is in your house, wearing your clothes, is another. Ouch. Look out for her poem, Men with Tired Hair, on a plaque outside Richardsons pub on Eyre Square. PC

Lockdown links: Order books online from charliebyrne.ie and kennys.ie. More at ritaannhiggins.com

Why: The most quoted Irish poet of lockdown? While we continue to winter this one out, try pinpointing Bellaghy on a map. Its tiny, but was the centre of a young Seamus Heaneys universe. Think of Toners bog, Lagans Road or Moss Bawn. Around here are the lanes where blackberries were picked, where that door into the dark led to Devlins Forge. In 2016, the brilliant HomePlace opened as an exhibition and performance space that celebrates both his towering legacy and new writers and artists. A museum looks back, manager Brian McCormick told me at the time. We want this to be much more forward-thinking. PC

Lockdown links: This December, a virtual programme of events will celebrate the 25th anniversary of Heaneys Nobel Prize in Literature. 15; seamusheaneyhome.com

Why: A portrait of the loving bond between a man and his dog, Spill Simmer Falter Wither takes readers on an atmospheric journey through the seasons in coastal County Cork. This is a book that instantly transports you to the Irish countryside, to a land of back roads, soft rain and lavender hedges, betting shops and sports grounds. Its all about the sights, the solitude, the smells, of fox spray and honeysuckle, pine martens and stinkhorns, seven different kinds of sap. Its all so familiar and realistic, with none of the twee romanticism youll read elsewhere. The rural theme continues in Baumes second book, A Line Made By Walking, about a girl in her twenties who struggles to cope with urban life, and escapes to the countryside. NB

Lockdown links: Midleton Books is a great independent shop in East Cork; facebook.com/midletonbooks

Why: God is in the bits and pieces, Patrick Kavanagh wrote. Think of him, and the sculpture by Dublins Grand Canal comes to mind, but this was a country man who took the bus on weekends back to the stony grey soil that inspired so much of his work. A 1 million reboot of Inniskeens Patrick Kavanagh Centre opened this summer with interpretative displays and an events space, and a 6km trail brings the landscape to life, from Billy Brennans Barn to the Inniskeen Road and old Kavanagh homestead (the setting for Tarry Flynn). They said / That I was bounded by the whitethorn hedges / Of the little farm and did not know the world / But I knew that loves doorway to life / Is the same doorway everywhere, he wrote in Innocence. PC

Lockdown links: A centrepiece exhibition, The Pincer Jaws of Heaven, won a European Heritage in Motion Award last week. Online updates at patrickkavanaghcentre.com

Why: A revolutionary novelist whose first two books were banned in Ireland, OBrien (1897-1974) dealt with feminist and sexual issues, and featured positive gay characters long before it was considered acceptable. In fact, when the Museum of Literature Ireland (moli.ie) opened in Dublin last year, it launched with an exhibition dedicated to OBrien, which ran for four months. Born in Limerick, many of her books are set in the city, which she calls Mellick. Read one and youll be transported to a historical city where horses hooves echoe on the cobblestones. NB

Lockdown links: Quay Books is a gorgeous little book stand in the Arthurs Quay Shopping Centre, currently offering Click and Collect; quaybooksstore.com

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A man rows by the uninhabited Isle of Innisfree in Lough Gill, Co. Sligo circa 1968. Photo: RDImages/Epics/Getty Images

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Why: It isnt hard to connect the dots between Sligo and Yeats between the statue, the grave, the caf and the festival, his name is everywhere. In fairness, the connection is one to be honoured. Yeats spent his childhood summers in Sligo, and his descriptions of the county are dreamily beautiful. Lake Isle of Innisfree was written while he was homesick in London, and the portrayal of the tiny island on Lough Gill where peace comes dropping slow and midnights all a glimmer is enough to make you want to pick up sticks and head there immediately. Dooney forest, Glencar waterfall, Hazelwood, bare Ben Bulbens head... the Land of hearts desire is crammed with literary links. NB

Lockdown links: Bookmart in Sligo is a haven for secondhand titles, and open mic poetry nights in normal times. You can learn more from the Yeats Society in Sligo, too. bookmart.ie; yeatssociety.com

Why: Tim Robinson sadly died this year after contracting Covid-19. The author and cartographer changed worlds with a move from London to the West of Ireland in the 1970s, and went on to immerse himself in the landscapes of Connemara and Inis Mr. I wore the network of tender little fields and bleak rocky shores of Aran into my skin until I could have printed off a map of them by rolling on a sheet of paper, he once said. Stones of Aran and his Connemara trilogy are among the richest, most beautiful matches of artist to specific landscapes and culture Ive come across, from their grand sweep to the turns of phrase you can picture him mulling as he walked every possible inch of these small, but eternally unknowable terrains a bog is its own diary is one of my favourites. PC

Lockdown links: NUI Galways library allows a digital search of Robinsons Aran and Connemara maps a fascinating rabbit hole to disappear down. library.nuigalway.ie

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Derrynane Beach. Photo: Getty

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Why: Though A Ghost in the Throat is set loosely in Cork, author and poet N Ghrofa takes us on a journey through time and language, as much as place. Part personal essay, part autofiction, the book is about her obsession with Eibhlin Dubh Ni Chonaill, and her poem Caoineadh Airt Ui Laoghaire. She makes the trip from her home in Cork to retrace Eibhlins footsteps, from the bridge in Kilcrea where her husband was murdered Goosebumps punctuate my skin. She was here to Derrynane Beach, where she scrambles at low tide to Abbey Island and imagines Eibhlin and her twin skipping through the squat juniper bushes, past wildflowers and the jagged greens of nettles. Every line is an absolute dream. NB

Lockdown links: The tiny Kenmare Bookshop is a charming little spot; facebook.com/kenmarebookshop

Milkman: Anna Burns novel set in Northern Ireland won the Man Booker prize in 2018.

The Springs of Affection: Maeve Brennans collection of stories from The New Yorker, set in Dublin.

Departures: Brian Leydens stories paint a vivid picture of Roscommon, particularly in the 60s and 70s.

Ulysses: The ultimate city companion? Joyces Dublin plays out in forensic, irresistable detail.

Art of the Glimpse: 100 Irish short stories, compiled by the brilliant Sinad Gleeson. Christmas... hint, hint.

Angelas Ashes: Love it or loathe it, Frank McCourts smash hit novel put his vision of Limerick on the map.

This Hostel Life: Melatu Uche Okorie spent eight-and-a-half years in Direct Provision; her collection of essays and stories is a powerful read.

Lord of the Rings: Yep, JRR Tolkien was partly inspired by travel in the Burren.

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Top 10 literary trips in Ireland - tour the landscapes that inspired authors and poets - Independent.ie

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero