In The Pathless Land, Hannigan brings luminosity, clarity and rich research to tell an evocative and fascinating story of land and access in Ireland. Hannigan is a perfect traveller on foot - curious, empathetic and questioning. I couldn't recommend The Pathless Land more.

Jack Cornish

To walk is to know… Hannigan engages in deep and beguiling conversation with the Irish landscape. He, and the reader, emerge richer and wiser for the experience.

Max Adams

With every footsore step, Hannigan brings Ireland's troubled past hauntingly alive.

Ian Crofton

A brilliant travelogue, balancing observation and history, The Pathless Land has ingenious structure and a humane mission: the author, realising that Ireland has few public footways, sets off to experience walking across a land that often wants to make his journey difficult. It is a finely written account, with keen insights on every page, all the keener for being gathered on the eye level and pace of a walker. In parallel, the book also delivers a history of Ireland's relationship to the land, a story that is perhaps the best way to understand the country and its people.

Garrett Carr

A brilliant read, full of history, local curiosity and characters ... [Hannigan is] here long enough to know us well, but he's also detached enough to look at Ireland and our ideas about the land with a dispassionate eye. It's a really, really good read.

Philip Boucher-Hayes, RTÉ CountryWide

Hugely enjoyable ... An engaging and insightful book that blends vivid travel writing and meticulous research with a clear-eyed exploration of the knotty intersection of history, landscape and identity.

Geographical