David Flanagan

I have been climbing for nearly 20 years, focusing mostly on exploring and developing new bouldering problems and areas across Ireland. From the early days of my climbing career I kept notes and drew topos and maps of my discoveries, eventually I started to gather this information on a website, theshortspan.com. In 2010 I was made redundant from my boring computers job and decided that the time was right to publish a proper guide to Bouldering in Ireland. And just over a year later I self-published my first book, Bouldering in Ireland.

I formed Three Rock Books and in late September 2013 I published my second book Bouldering Essentials. I have also published a guide to the best of Irish rock climbing, Rock Climbing in Ireland, and a guide to Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way, Exploring Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way.

In May 2018 I published Cycling in Ireland, a guide to the best of Irish cycling.

In late 2019 Richard Creagh and I started work on a book called Exploring Ireland, a guide to the Irish outdoors, it was nearly finished when covid arrived in spring 2020. Obviously this set us back, but we published the book in late November of this year (2022).

During lockdown I branched into some map-making producing the Adventure Map of Ireland, a folding map that is also available as an A0 poster. I also made two other A2 posters: the Hiking Map of Ireland and the Cycling Map of Ireland.

In late 2022 I published Exploring Ireland and this year I released a new edition of Cycling in Ireland. I have also start to produce more maps both for private individuals and for sale.

All the above books and maps are produced and printed in Ireland. So your money stays in the country.