About Geography at Trinity College

The Honours course in Geography at Trinity College was established in 1936, the year in which T.W. Freeman, a pioneer of geographical studies in Ireland and, on the international plane, of the history and philosophy of Geography, was appointed to the staff. Trinity’s first Professor of Geography was J.P. Haughton who, having been Head of Department since 1953, held the Chair of Geography from 1966 until his retirement in 1986.

The present Head of Geography is Professor Iris Moeller who, with the Department's full-time and associate members of staff, encompass many of the major fields of geographical research. Our department is ranked in the Top 100 Geography Departments in the world and it is a place of intensive and extensive geographical scholarship, with specialisms in teaching and researching across the discipline, from development theory to coastal modelling, from cities to Martian landscapes, and from climate change to the workings of the social economy.

Our department is based in one of the architectural gems of the College, the Museum Building, at the centre of the campus. We are also positioned to be at the centre of the University’s ground-breaking E3 – Balanced Solutions for a Balanced World education initiative, an interdisciplinary response to the challenges of our times which pushes our staff and students to respond to and shape the world of Engineering, Environment, and Emerging Technologies. We’ll be working with a network of university colleagues and research clusters in the new E3 Learning Foundry, which will bring TCD staff and students together to uncover new knowledge, nurture ground-breaking ideas, and encourage a radical approach to problem-solving.

In addition to geography teaching and laboratory facilities, our building also houses the Freeman Library -a departmental resource which contains a wide selection of geography periodicals and other reference materials.

About Trinity College and the Museum Building

Trinity College is the single constituent college of the University of Dublin. Founded in 1592, it is the oldest university in Ireland and among the oldest in Western Europe. The campus, located at the heart of Dublin city, extends over 17 ha. and is attractively laid out in quadrangles overlooked by beautiful buildings, many dating from the 18th century.

Situated east of the Old Library Building and the Berkeley Library, the Museum Building was completed in 1857 and comprises of 4 levels - basement, main foyer and ground floor with 2 upper floors - and is laid out in a rectangular plan with the main entrance to the north. Inspired by the Byzantine architecture of Venice, the building hosts extensive lecture halls and teaching facilities for staff and students.

The general public are permitted access to the main foyer and ground floor hall area of the Museum Building.

If you would like to see more of Trinity College and the Museum Building, the College Campus Maps show locations and photographs of college buildings together with a street map and route map of Dublin City.

To view the RTE news item on the Museum Building conservation project, showing detailed close ups of the 19th Century carvings (Thursday 7th March 2013) - click here