There's a widely held misconception that our medieval ancestors believed the world

was flat.

This was not the case.

They had a much better understanding of geography than we often give them credit for it.

While they may have been unable to definitively prove the matter, many medieval thinkers believed

the earth was round.

As early as 1492, the German map maker Martin Behein had even managed to depict the world

on a globe.

Overall, his was a pretty decent effort.

There is one major omission of course.

The Americas were completely unknown to Behein.

Christopher Columbus was only preparing to leave Europe when he completed the globe.

However, it's another geographical blind spot of a sort on this globe that concerns us

in this podcast.

It's clear from Behein's globe that he and his contemporaries had a best a basic understanding

of Irish geography.

He presumably based his information on conversations he had with mariners and traders, but the coastline

of Ireland is completely the wrong shape and he only named three locations.

Two of these, the ports of Waterward and Yoll, located on the southern coasts, were presumably

frequented by continental sailors, who Behein may have met on the docks of European ports,

but the third and final location he named is strange to say the least.

While major settlements like Dublin, Drodden, Cork are absent, Behein included the tiny,

...