Beautiful nature writing combined with a passionate appeal for a radically changed relationship to our environment, from the man behind Ireland's temperate rainforest on the Wild Atlantic Way.
Eoghan Daltun is a sculpture conservator, a farmer and, above all, a rewilder.Reared in Dublin, he has travelled widely, as well as living abroad in London, Paris and Prague. He spent seven years studying sculpture in Carrara, Tuscany.In 2009, he sold the cottage in Kilmainham he had rebuilt mostly single-handed from a ruin - dating back to at least the 1750s - using the original stone. The proceeds went to buy a long-abandoned 73-acre farm overlooking the Atlantic near Eyeries on the Beara Peninsula, West Cork. Much of the land was covered in wild native forest which, although very beautiful, was ecologically wrecked by severe overgrazing and invasion by a host of alien plant species.Over the years since, Eoghan has brought life in all its explosive vibrancy back to the land, with new temperate rainforest spontaneously forming where previously there was only barren grass. Restoring such an incredibly rich ecosystem has taken him on a fantastic journey of discovery, lifting a curtain to reveal a whole universe of wonders beyond. Rewilding most of the land, and High Nature Value farming the rest, there has been plenty of time to reflect deeply on the ecological crisis unfolding at terrifying speed all around us, and its solutions.He lives on the farm with his two sons Liam and Seanie, their collie dog Charlie, and five Dexter cows: Maggie, Gertrude, Amber, Nelly and Minnie.
Daltun brings us on a journey into the history and ecology of
Ireland's woodlands and provides an inspiring vision of their
social, ecological and cultural potential if allowed to thrive
again * Manchan Magan, writer and broadcaster *
This is an inspirational book. Eoghan Daltun's mission to restore
an Irish rainforest has already inspired thousands via his posts on
social media, and this account is sure to galvanise many more.
Eoghan's evocative descriptions of the temperate rainforest he
discovered growing on the Beara Peninsula, his knowledge of history
and place, and his wisdom and insights into how to repair this
damaged ecosystem, mean this book should be urgently read by
politicians and the public alike. The time has come to restore
temperate rainforests across Ireland and Britain * Guy Shrubsole,
environmental campaigner and author of The Lost Rainforests of
Britain (William Collins, 2022) and Who Owns England (2019) *
Eoghan Daltun's wildly inspirational memoir of adopting a slice of
Ireland's coast and snatching it from ecological degradation is an
invaluable and timely revelation. By simple, if backbreaking,
means-fencing out herbivores, extirpating invasives, and
encouraging natural reseeding-he has allowed the land to live its
best life, recovering its true character as temperate rainforest.
It's a breath-taking accomplishment on an island where only one
percent of original woodland survives and an urgent prescription
for Ireland's remaining forest fragments. The moving epiphanies of
Daltun's encounters with the "simply aching beauty" of this
intoxicating place leave you rejuvenated, "as if you've won a much
bigger jackpot than any of those they sell tickets for." The most
exhilarating account of rewilding yet written * Caroline Fraser,
author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Prairie Fires: The American
Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rewilding the World: Dispatches
from the Conservation Revolution *
In this part-memoir, part environmental treatise, we watch a
temperate rainforest flourish on the Irish coast and are asked to
examine larger questions about climate breakdown * Irish
Independent *
If much ecology writing in Ireland is about paradise lost, then
Daltun's odyssey, which at times takes on an almost dreamlike
quality, is about paradise regained. He offers readers a
tantalising glimpse into the mysterious, mystical, even spiritual
wild world that lies waiting to be rediscovered * Sunday Business
Post *
An Irish Atlantic Rainforest is Daltun's engaging account of
his work since 2009 to regenerate that patch of rainforest. He
tells of an enriching experience of embedding in a rural community,
and how the woods come to sustain him spiritually and emotionally *
Sunday Independent *
Daltun [...] writes with passion and purpose of the way we should
live now * RTE Guide *
The book is both a lament for what's been lost, and a hopeful story
of restoration * Irish Times *
An Irish Atlantic Rainforest is [Eoghan Daltun's]
fascinating account of moving his family to Eyries and slowly
restoring the farm and renewing the woodland to the point where
it's now 'simply exploding with biodiversity'. ... The book is a
manifesto for saving our own corner of the planet through letting
things be * Irish Times The Gloss *
There is a lightness of touch to this incredibly deep book. Its
pages flow easily from reflections on life and death to analysis of
the wider debates around rewilding and sustainable land use in
Ireland, from global strategies for climate change to the minutiae
of nature's tiniest creations * Irish Independent *
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