TRAVELLING ON THE VIRTUAL BALLAST: REDISCOVERING THE SHARED GEOLOGICAL AND RAILWAY HERITAGE OF CONNEMARA, IRELAND

The arrival of the railway in Ireland in the mid-nineteenth century was contemporaneous to the country's first significant national geological survey. Nowhere is this more evident than in Richard Griffith's map accompanying the First Report to the Railway Commissioners of Ireland 1838, which clearly shows the proposed railway network superimposed upon a detailed geological map of Ireland.

The seemingly untamed natural landscape of Connemara, western Ireland, and its potential as a tourism attraction, was a major factor in the routing of a railroad through the region in the closing years of nineteenth century. To celebrate the geological and railway heritage of Connemara, a virtual field trip has been designed. Using Google Earth as the virtual tour ‘landscape', users can embark on a field trip following the now disused 49 mile long railway line, discovering the region's rich geological and geomorphological heritage. ‘Disembarking' at any of the eight stations along the route, users can investigate the local geology, visit the nearby mines and quarries, explore the famous glaciated Inagh and Maam valleys, and even take off from Alcock and Brown's landing site near Clifden – bound for Newfoundland, which coincidently shares a similar geological history with Connemara.

The complete tour is navigable through a variety of KML and KMZ files, made accessible via a standard HTML webpage. Further associated information is served using QTVR, Flash, amongst other image and text media. The diverse functionality of Google Earth, with its ability to integrate hyperlinked placemarks, info-windows, image overlays and three-dimensional SketchUp and ArcScene models into one visualisation platform, renders Google Earth a highly suitable and interactive multimedia product for this project. It is intended that the virtual tour will serve as an informative resource in both the region's educational and heritage domains.