After a career as a visual artist using the name Timothy Drever, in
Istanbul,
Vienna and London, he settled in the
Aran Islands, off the coast of
County Galway in the 1970s, and began a detailed study of the landscape of the
West Region, Ireland. Robinson produced his first map of the Aran Islands in 1975 with a second edition in 1980, and "Oileáin Árainn", an accompaniment to the map in 1996. After his initial map of Aran, in 1977, he produced a two-inch map of the uplands of North-West Clare, covering
The Burren, with a second edition in 1999. In 1981, Robinson began to turn his attention to
Connemara, writing a pamphlet, later expanded into a book, called "Setting Foot on the Shores of Connemara". There followed a series of recurring articles in the
Connacht Tribune under the title "Mapping South Connemara". In 1990, Robinson published his 1-inch map of
Connemara with an accompanying gazetteer. Like the other two regional maps, these were published by Folding Landscapes, the specialist publishing house and information centre Tim and his wife Máiréad ran from their
Roundstone base. Tim Robinson was elected Parnell Visiting Fellow for 2011, at Magdalene College, Cambridge. He delivered the annual Parnell Lecture in February 2011. Its title is ‘A Land without Shortcuts’, and it was published in the Dublin Review. His two-volume study of the Aran Islands,
Stones of Aran, is a much-praised compendium of topographical and cultural lore, described by
Michael Viney as "One of the most original, revelatory and exhilarating works of literature ever produced in Ireland."
Stones of Aran: Pilgrimage follows the form of a coastal exploration, while
Stones of Aran: Labyrinth explores the interior. His most recent work was the publication of a three-volume study of Connemara called
Listening to the Wind,
A Little Gaelic Kingdom, and
The Last Pool of Darkness. He was a member of the Irish arts organisation
Aosdána. Robinson won two
Irish Book Awards: the 2007 Argosy Irish Non-Fiction Book of the Year for
Connemara: Listening to the Wind, and the 2011 International Education Services Best Irish-Published Book of the Year for
Connemara: A Little Gaelic Kingdom.
Liam Mac Con Iomaire and Tim Robinson won the 2016 Lois Roth Award for a Translation of a Literary Work for
Graveyard Clay /
Cré na Cille: A Narrative in Ten Interludes, by
Máirtín Ó Cadhain (Yale Univ. Press, 2016). Connemara: Listening to the Wind was also short-listed for the Royal Society of Literature’s
Ondaatje Prize 2007 (awarded to books of any genre that evoke the spirit of a place). ==Personal life==