This book by Tarquin Blake documents eighty abandoned Church of Ireland churches, preserving a record of fragile religious ruins. Blake's haunting images of crumbling ruins and history of the churches tell another fascinating story of troubled times.

A stunning collection of photographs of abandoned Irish country mansions, offering a glimpse into what were some of Ireland's most distinguished homes.

Abandoned Ireland travels the length and breadth of the island of Ireland visiting and documenting our forgotten buildings, highlighting their social importance, and bringing their stories back to life through the medium of photography. From Big Houses to humble cottages, schools to prisons, churches to dance halls, these buildings may now be abandoned, but they are far from empty. As a photographer, Brownlie’s instincts are remarkable. In the seemingly ruined and mundane she finds diamonds in the rough; her images of the ordinary ephemera of past lives – dusty love letters, rusting spectacles, photographs yellowed and curled with age – paint the pictures of real people and full lives. Rebecca Brownlie's photography reverberates with the echoes of our ancestors. Bursting with engaging and often surprising details, each haunting photograph is an invitation to immerse yourself in history, and an Ireland long gone.

Between the fifth century and the ninth, several thousand churches were founded in Ireland, a higher density than in most other regions of Europe. This period saw fundamental changes in settlement patterns, agriculture, social organisation and beliefs, and churches are an important part of that story. The premise of this book is that landscape archaeology is one of the most fruitful ways to study them. By considering their placement in relation to pagan ritual sites, royal sites, burial grounds and settlements, we can begin to discern the shifting strategies of kings, ecclesiastics and ordinary people. The result is a new perspective on the process of conversion and consolidation complementary to those provided by historians.