Developing the Digital Map

Digitising Map 2

Map 2 is a reconstruction map of Fethard ca. 1840.  The original Map 2, shown above, was created by Sarah Gearty, cartographic editor with the Irish Historic Towns Atlas project.

This map was digitised using ArcGIS, a proprietary geographic information systems (GIS) software developed by ESRI.  The map was georectified, or given real-world co-ordinates, by matching it against a modern, large-scale basemap which was generously provided by the team at Ordnance Survey Ireland.  It was then vectorised, or traced, using the GIS software.

Creating Point Data

Map 2 provides a snapshot of Fethard in the mid-nineteenth century, but the topographical information includes information from the earliest records of Fethard.

All of this was extracted from the original atlas by our transcribers, and the information was uploaded into the GIS.  We do not know the locations of all the features that are included in the GIS, but for those we have been able to identify, we added x,y co-ordinates to the information, and displayed the locations using points on the map.  When users click on a point they can access information about that feature.

The artwork created by Transition Year students at the Patrician Presentation Secondary School, Fethard was also given a spatial location on the map.

Publishing the Data

The data was then uploaded into ArcGIS Online where it is currently hosted. It is accessible from any wireless device, whether a PC, tablet or mobile phone.