Old Map of Connacht

Historical Background

Speed’s map of Connacht combines a survey of western Ireland with a prominent plan of Galway. The title uses the spelling ‘Connaugh’, while the original plate carries the date 1610. On the reproduced example, the later imprint of Richard Chiswell and Thomas Bassett connects the sheet with their 1676 edition of Speed’s atlas.

Map Details

• Original title: The Province of Connaugh with the Citie of Galwaye Described
• Cartographer: John Speed
• Publisher of this state: Thomas Bassett and Richard Chiswell, London
• Date: 1610 design; later Chiswell and Bassett state, associated with the 1676 edition
• Source publication: The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine
• Area shown: Connacht, including Clare, with an inset plan of Galway
• Orientation: North towards the top

Why Clare appears in Connacht

Clare’s position on this map is historically significant. It was administered as part of Connacht between 1568 and 1639, before returning to Munster. The boundary therefore records the administrative geography of Speed’s original design, even though this particular publishing state is later. It is a useful example of how the engraved date, the geography represented and the date of a surviving edition need to be read separately.

The city of Galway

The inset at the lower right gives Galway a presence quite different from the smaller settlement symbols elsewhere on the sheet. The town’s enclosing walls, streets and waterside setting can be inspected in detail. Buildings fill the defended town, with vessels outside it emphasising its connection with the sea. The plan introduces a human scale to the broader provincial geography, making it possible to move from a county or river to the closely packed streets of an individual city.

Reading the western landscape

Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon and Galway appear across the main map, with the western coast facing the ‘West Ocean’. Lough Corrib and the Shannon country help orient the reader, while pictorial hills and small tree symbols describe the land in the visual language of early atlas engraving. Place names are often spelled differently from their modern equivalents. Royal arms, a decorative scale and the compass rose frame this dense geographical information. The result is a print with plenty to discover at close range, rather than a simple outline of Ireland’s western province.