Creating a transdisciplinary landscape biography of Kilrossanty parish, Comeragh Mountains, Ireland, using GIS mapping

Landscape biographies have gained in popularity in recent years as a holistic assessment tool to enable local government planning and also to promote a community’s sense of place and identity. The approach however, has yet to be applied to the Republic of Ireland’s unique historic and cultural landscape. This thesis aims to address this omission by exploring how previous biographical approaches can be adapted and applied to Ireland, by using the region of Kilrossanty parish, situated in County Waterford in the south east of the island, as a case study. The new methodology intends to complement the current governmental approach to landscape assessment in Ireland which focuses solely on Landscape Character Assessments. The thesis argues that the complexities of the Irish historical background require a more layered approach for which a biography is more appropriate. By conducting transdisciplinary fieldwork, an Irish landscape biographical model has been produced focusing upon the landscape’s structural transformations and identification of its authors who have been categories to better reflect the societal and political strata of this formerly colonised country