The first Clare Island Survey 1909–1911 

Robert Lloyd Praeger (back row, first from left after inset) and other Survey members seated in and around a pookawn (Praeger Collection, RIA)

During the years 1909 to 1911, the most ambitious natural history project ever undertaken in Ireland, the Clare Island Survey, was carried out under the auspices of the Royal Irish Academy. This was the first major biological survey of a specific area carried out in the world. The data collected during three years of field work on the island by more than one hundred scientists from Ireland, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland and Britain represent the most comprehensive inventory of nature in a single geographical location during the early part of this century, and render Clare Island a unique site for further study.

Papers from the first survey and biographies of participants

Click here to view and download papers from the first survey and biographies of participants