Timothy Drever Robinson, an English writer and cartographer, passed away on 3 April 2020after suffering from coronavirus complications.
His most famous works include books about Ireland's Aran Islands and Connemara, in the West of Ireland. He was also well known for producing exceptionally detailed maps of the Aran Islands, The Burren, and Connemara, what he called "the ABC of earth wonders".
Born in England, he studied mathematics at the Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.
After a career as a visual artist in Istanbul, Vienna and London, he settled in the Aran Islands, off the coast of County Galway in the 1970s, and began a detailed study of the landscape of the West Region, Ireland.
Robinson produced his first map of the Aran Islands in 1975 with a second edition in 1980, and "Oileáin Árainn", an accompaniment to the map in 1996. After his initial map of Aran, in 1977, he produced a two-inch map of the uplands of North-West Clare, covering The Burren, with a second edition in 1999. In 1981, Robinson began to turn his attentions to Connemara, writing a pamphlet, later expanded into a book, called "Setting Foot on the Shores of Connemara". There followed a series of recurring articles in the Connacht Tribune under the title "Mapping South Connemara". In 1990, Robinson published his 1-inch map of Connemara with an accompanying gazetteer. Like the other two regional maps, these were published by Folding Landscapes, the specialist publishing house and information centre Tim and his wife Máiréad ran from their Roundstone base.
In 1987 Tim and Máiréad Robinson won the first Ford European Conservation award that was given in Ireland, and they went on to represent Ireland at the Ford European Conservation Awards in Madrid the following year, 1988.
His two-volume study of the Aran Islands, Stones of Aran, is a much-praised compendium of topographical and culture lore, described by Michael Viney as "One of the most original, revelatory and exhilarating works of literature ever produced in Ireland." Stones of Aran: Pilgrimage follows the form of a coastal exploration, while Stones of Aran: Labyrinth explores the interior.
His most recent work was the publication of a three-volume study of Connemara called Listening to the Wind, A Little Gaelic Kingdom, and The Last Pool of Darkness. He was a member of the Irish arts organisation Aosdána.
Robinson won two Irish Book Awards: the 2007 Argosy Irish Non-Fiction Book of the Year for Connemara: Listening to the Wind, and the 2011 International Education Services Best Irish-Published Book of the Year for Connemara: A Little Gaelic Kingdom.
Robinson died at St Pancras Hospital on 3 April 2020 at the age of 85, as a result of Covid-19 during the pandemic in the United Kingdom. Robinson died two weeks after the death of his wife and collaborator Máiréad Robinson.