Publisher's Synopsis
The author proposes a new theory about the place of pilgrimage in Ireland in the early Christian period, placing it right at the centre of communal life. He begins by collecting the historical evidence for pilgrimage in the period and goes on to discuss and describe Ireland's many stone monuments on old monastery sites which came into existence not, as has hitherto always been assumed, through the practices of ascetic monasticism, but because of pilgrims' activities. Indeed the famous medieval traveller's tale of the fabulous voyage of St Brendan the Navigator can now be seen as the literary expression of a longstanding maritime pilgrimage up and down the Atlantic seaways of Ireland and Scotland, reaching Ireland, Greenland and even North America.;The author also wrote "Guide to the National Monuments of Ireland", "Irish Art and Architecture" and "Pre-Christian Ireland".
