A visual trip through the Emerald Isle: an unparalleled portrayal of the rural beauty and charm of Ireland.

Clusters of white cottages huddled between hills of an unbelievably rich green, villages of a single street, dazzling in their array of color washes and picturesque shop-fronts—such are the villages of Ireland, which to this day are living working communities.

The most beautiful of these villages are captured here in Christopher Fitz-Simon’s sensitive commentaries and Hugh Palmer’s evocative photographs. This is a journey full of rural gems, some famous, others less so. Here are the colored coastal villages of Cork, their vibrant houses sloping down to a sea that so many Irish people crossed to found other communities in America. Here too are the stunning medieval churches of Roscommon and Galway; and the villages of Antrim, standing ruggedly in defiance of the northern seas.