Climbing Brandon : Science and Faith on Ireland's Holy Mountain

by Chet Raymo

• ISBN13: 9780802714336
• ISBN10: 0802714331
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2004-05-01
• Publisher: Walker & Company

Summary

An acclaimed science writer celebrates an enduring symbol of Ireland's Celtic past, Christian tradition, and love of nature Mount Brandon is one of several holy mountains in Ireland that attract scores of believers and secular trekkers from around the world. For thirty-two years, Chet Raymo has lived part of each year on the Dingle Peninsula, near the foot of the mountain, and he has climbed it perhaps a hundred times, exploring paths that have been used for centuries by pilgrims in search of spiritual enlightenment. But the history and geography of Mount Brandon are what drew Raymo to it and offered him a lens through which to view the modern conflicts between science and religion. When Ireland converted from paganism, it became home to a kind of Christianity that was unique in Europeintensely intellectual yet attuned to nature, skeptical yet celebratory, grounded in the here-and-now yet open to infinity. In this rich celebration of Mount Brandon, Raymo weaves together myth and science, folklore and natural history, spiritual and physical geographies. He takes us to a time on the wave-lashed edge of the Western world when Mediterranean Christianity ran up against Celtic nature worship and the Irishwith their fondness for ambiguity, double meanings, puns and riddlesforged a fusion of knowledge and faith that sustains us today.

Author Biography

For nearly forty years, Chet Raymo has been exploring the relationship between science, nature, and the humanities as a professor, writer, illustrator and naturalist. In The Path: A One-Mile Walk Through the Universe, he uses the one-mile path he has walked to work for the past four decades as a means of discovering the extraordinary in everyday life.

A professor emeritus of astronomy and physics at Stonehill College in North Easton, Massachusetts, Raymo is the noted author of more than eight books on science, including the highly-praised An Intimate Look at the Night Sky, 365 Starry Nights, The Soul of the Night, Honey from Stone, and Skeptics and True Believers. In 1998, he won a prestigious Lannan Literary Award for the body of his non-fiction work. Raymo is also the author of two novels, In the Falcon's Claw (1990) and The Dork of Cork (1993), which has been sold in twelve languages.

Since 1985, he has written "Science Musings" for the Boston Globe , a weekly science and nature column reflecting upon the human side of science. He is also a frequent contributor to popular science and nature publications.

Chet Raymo and his wife Maureen live in North Easton, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

PREFACE	ix
1 BRANDON: BETWEEN HEAVEN & EARTH	1	(20)
2 CLOGHANE: TWILIGHT OF THE GODS	21	(22)
3 FAHR: LAND OF MILK HONEY	43	(20)
4 BINN NA PORT: THE WILD & THE HOLY	63	(20)
5 COUMAKNOCK: MOUNTAIN GLOOM, MOUNTAIN GLORY	83	(22)
6 SUMMIT: DISCOVERY OF IGNORANCE	105	(20)
7 ATLANTIC: THE NEW STORY	125	(22)
8 GALLARUS: A NEST BESIDE THY ALTAR	147	(22)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS	169	(2)
NOTES	171	(6)
INDEX	177