HeritageMaps.ie adds Irish Historical Towns Atlas dataset

While I've previously blogged about the value of Ordnance Survey Ireland's GeoHive site for historical mapping data, I don't seem to have mentioned the Heritage Council's HeritageMaps.ie, which may also be useful to family historians.

Irish Historic Towns Atlas locations are identified
on HeritageMaps.ie and provide
download links to the IHTA digital editions

My attention was drawn to HeritageMaps this week because the towns featured in the Royal Irish Academy's Irish Historic Towns Atlas* range have been identified on the site. They are not only marked on the maps; data from the IHTA digital editions – a selection of texts and maps, bibliography, topographical information – is presented and can be directly downloaded.

The Heritage Maps viewer is a web-based spatial data viewer which focuses on the built, cultural and natural heritage around Ireland and off shore. It allows the researcher to view a wide range of data sets in map form, many of which have not been accessible to the public before. You can also create customised maps, identify disused railway lines, Sheela-na-Gigs and protected monuments, locate local museums, archives and burial grounds, and study local flora and fauna. It has many uses, both recreational and research-based.

*The Irish Historic Towns Atlas (IHTA) is part of a wider European scheme which records the topographical development of a selection of towns both large and small. Each town is published separately as a fascicle or folder and includes a series of maps complemented by a detailed text section.