Wild Nephin (Paperback Edition)

This new book is an outcome of the author’s long fascination with the Nephin wilderness of north Mayo. Ever since moving to the county with his family in 1994, Seán Lysaght has been drawn to its wide-open spaces, its bogs, rivers and deserted uplands.

 Over the course of recent winters, he revisited many of his favourite haunts, alone or with companions, and also discovered some new trails. His curiosity led him to accompany falconers, hunters and local historians as they showed him different aspects of the landscape. His report is also attuned to the heritage of Irish and its rich legacy of folklore and placenames.

   Wild Nephin reaches beyond the official wilderness project in the national park to capture a wider region of unrivalled scale and remoteness. With a botanist’s eye, a hunter’s tenacity, and a poet’s wonder, Seán Lysaght explores the great wild territory of north Mayo in all its richness.

Lysaght celebrates it all with a poet’s elegance of language and a deep knowledge of nature.’

Michael Viney, The Irish Times, reviewing Eagle Country.

In Wild Nephin, Seán Lysaght confirms his role as gifted chronicler, bard and Sherpa of the new wilderness in the making… Along with his journeys in the natural world, he restores a rich local history to this bleakly depopulated corner of Connacht.

                                                                    Michael Viney The Irish Times