ARCHAEOLOGY: This is an important book, in that any detailed case history of an archaeologically and culturally rich and diverse area - particularly one possessing the historical continuity of the Boyne region - is important.
But in fairness to archaeologist Geraldine Stout, readers of her previous major publications on this area - her entry on the Bend of the Boyne in Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape (Cork University Press, 1997) and The Bend of the Boyne (Country House, 1997) - will already be informed as to her impressively multidisciplinary approach and interpretation, so impossible expectations are lining up to greet, and judge, it.
It should also be pointed out at the outset of any review of this new book that it is also the first of a series of ancillary monographs drawn from the regional case studies featuring in the atlas. Of those six, four - including most emphatically Billy Colfer's superb entry, 'The Hook, Co Wexford', as well as Andrew Stott's 'The Ring of Gullion, Co Armagh', R.H. Buchanan's 'The Lecale Peninsula, Co Down' and Stout's 'The Bend of the Boyne' - are outstanding and among the strengths of an atlas that is both graced and burdened by a multiplicity of authors and visions - if somewhat marred by the absence of an index.
In appearance and presentation, Newgrange and The Bend of the Boyne, though well indexed, retains the style of the atlas which has become something of a mother ship. I am not quite sure if this is a good or a bad thing. It may well be a shrewd publishing move, considering the appeal of the atlas. Yet it might ultimately relegate a monograph such as this to the status of addition rather than independent entity.
Immensely positive, however, is the contribution of Matthew Stout's cartographic flair evident throughout the book - as it was, of course, innovatively present throughout the atlas. He is also the designer and editor. Another presence is that of Dúchas photographer Con Brogan, whose photographs (many of those included here are by now archive shots) dominate the text, his picture credits soon become monotonous, asking the question: why was he not simply named as the chief photographer, leaving the credits to more random contributors?
Such is the range of historical references in the text - in which the author traces the evolution of the area from its geological origins; to the Neolithic tomb builders; to the Roman pilgrims visiting Newgrange; to St Patrick, who "began his Christian mission in Ireland" here; to the arrival of the Cistercians; to the impact of Cromwell, the drama of the Battle of the Boyne, the transformation of the landscape by the 18th century estates; and to the present day, including the response of artists to the place - that it seems a shame it was not simply called The Bend of the Boyne, as this is most patently what it is. This is not another Newgrange book, although it and the other great monuments are so central to it, her brief is far wider, more thematically and chronologically complicated.
In fact, in fairness to Stout and her approach, her Newgrange entry is routine enough, if enhanced by inclusion of a large photograph of Welsh antiquarian Edward Lhywd's survey of the tomb, "the first known plan" - she makes no new claims about the monument.
This is wholly understandable considering the wealth of existing material. Indeed, she is also relatively brief on the subject of Knowth, itself a microcosm of the entire valley's settlement patterns, aware as she is of the extent of specialist material largely written by the site's presiding excavator of some 40 year's experience, Prof George Eogan.
Where she does concentrate quite brilliantly, albeit briefly, is on the still under-explored site of Dowth, where the setting rather than rising winter solstice sun is aligned to warm the cold stone. "The great passage tomb of Dowth lies on the eastern edge of an elongated ridge. It compares in size and situation with Knowth and Newgrange, yet has remained relatively unexplored."
Dramatic full-page use is made of a superb Brogan photograph of the inner burial chamber of the northernmost tomb of Dowth. Curiously, a good - and rare - picture of the winter solstice setting sun illuminating the inner chamber of the southernmost tomb is reproduced at merely twice the size of a passport photograph. Credited to local artist Ann Marie Maroney, it has an elegiac quality, and in a book dominated by familiar pictures, should have been used much larger. Many of good the photographs suffer from being reproduced too small
Stout is good on the early historic, pre-Christian and early Christian. It would have been satisfying to have more on the Dindshenchas Érenn, or the Dinnshenchas, the history of places, a 12th-century mythological geography. In a fascinating table printed on page 65, connections made by scholars between places and people from myths and legends are traced.
With the arrival in the 12th century of the Cistercian monks, Stout acknowledges their introducing to the valley of "a revolutionary scheme of land management", which was self-sufficient and divided into farms or granges. The enterprising monks also developed milling and fishing on the Boyne. Although one of the hallmarks of Stout's approach is cross-referencing, she does not follow the story of Mellifont to the present day. This omission leads to a serious criticism. At no place throughout a book that is characteristically generous does she refer to Frank Mitchell's immense contribution to the investigation and preservation of the heritage of the Bend of the Boyne. Mitchell is the author of the classic, Reading the Irish Landscape (1986; revised 1990; revised 1997), a defining achievement of the multi-disciplinary approach which Stout herself has embraced. His final project, in partnership with art historian Roger Stalley, was the restoration of the octagonal two-storey Lavabo at Mellifont Abbey.
Mitchell, who spearheaded Eogan's arrival at Knowth, merits more than a reference in a picture caption on page 20 and a later mention as the owner of Townley Hall - which he had in fact sold many years before his death in November, 1997. It is surprising in a book that is so strong on the 18th century - with wonderful use of material such as Bernard Scale's Map of the Caldwell Estate, 1766 (reproduced on pages 130-31) and on the creation of the estate and demesne style - that Stout would neglect to credit Townley Hall as the classical masterpiece of architect Francis Johnston, referring to it only, and merely, as "a Georgian mansion".
Elsewhere confusion is created by two picture captions featuring Oldbridge House c. 1750. On page 135, it is described as being "altered by architect Frederick Darley c. 1832". However, the second picture caption, on page 150, again stating the house was redesigned c.1832, introduces some doubt: "The architect involved may have been George Darley".
Protection of the environment is less forthrightedly stated here by her than in her previous works. Here the onus is placed on the farmers as "environmental managers". She reiterates her previous criticism of aesthetically unsympathetic modern farm buildings and the damage done to earthen embanked enclosures, or henge monuments, by ploughing and arable practices.
The State and Dúchas, the Heritage Service, are positively viewed, although she does note that, despite the international importance of The Battle of the Boyne, many of the battle landmarks such as "the position of encampments, the placement of field pieces, the areas through which troop movements occurred . . . remain unmarked!"
There is no mention of the impact of the National Roads Authority's work, which has been the subject of some dispute in the Boyne Valley area (as well as throught the State), inciting local concerns and at least two major archaeological conferences. There is no reference to the construction of the now-complete highly visible suspension bridge east of Oldbridge, on the site of The Battle of the Boyne. Nor is there any mention of the planned incinerator outside Duleek, currently under appeal. There are, however, some cautionary observations made about the potential threat of further quarrying, particularly "to the shale ridge, which creates such a dramatic setting for the passage tombs" . . . and "is a major target for extraction". She does note on page 183 that Meath County Council granted permission to Irish Cement for a shale quarry "within the buffer zone of the Boyne Valley Archaeological Park".
The tone shifts from the formal and scholarly to the conversational. It is true that Stout's prose has been more fluid than it is, at times, here, and the chatty sequences at the end appear out of place. Still, many will applaud the warmth, humility and engaging sense of wonder expressed in her closing sentence: "Theories come and go; so do archaeologists, scholars and poets; so have hundreds of generations; but the tombs endure." As does a remarkable landscape layered with specific chapters of an evolving history - a history that Stout more than does justice to.
Eileen Battersby is Literary Correspondent of The Irish Times
Newgrange and the Bend of the Boyne. By Geraldine Stout. Cork University Press, 233 pp. €40.