ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the question of whether there is a distinctiveness to outdoor education in Ireland and queries the extent to which it has grown out of its cultural setting. It focuses on whether place and cultural context have resulted in a distinctively Irish outdoor education and to addresses this question two separated strands. The first strand explores perceptions of ‘landscape’ and recreation in the landscape. The second strand examines how a national system of education evolved in Ireland and had implications for the development of outdoor education. The chapter provides an insight into the thoughts of those pioneers who had lived through the early developments of outdoor education in Ireland. Trant introduced an outdoor education programme within the school which expanded rapidly and can be regarded as the first structured use of outdoor education in Ireland. Outdoor education was also comparatively slow to emerge within the Irish education system.
