Robert M Chapple, Archaeologist

  As part of the Chapple Family trip through Fermanagh & Tyrone, we stopped off at the unassuming graveyard of Caldragh on Boa Island. In amongst the small, uninscribed stones and the handful of 19 th and 20 th century headstones is one of the gems of Irish archaeology – the Boa Island figure. This is a so-called ‘Janus’ figure with a face on either side of the stone as wells as the Lustymore Idol – a figure sculpture moved here from a nearby island. Both are probable representations of Iron Age deities and are much better described and explained by Wikipedia [ here ]. The last time I was here with the Chapples Minor was in the summer of 2013. It was a gorgeous day, with wonderful light and I managed to get some acceptable photos of the carvings [ here ]. Unfortunately, the light wasn’t nearly as good on our October 2020 visit and the resulting video doesn’t do justice to these remarkable carvings. However, it does provide the opportunity for a few minutes of relaxation in a ...

[** If you like this post, please make a donation to the IR&DD project using the secure button at the right. If you think it is interesting or useful, please re-share via Facebook, Google+, Twitter etc. To help keep the site in operation, please use the amazon search portal at the right - each purchase earns a small amount of advertising revenue **] Part II | Part III > A little while back, I mentioned our family excursions to Fermanagh in the summer of 2013 and that I hoped to find a little time to put together a few lines about what we did and where we went – and (just maybe) why you should consider going for yourself! Somewhere along the way, I had decided that the trips should have a common theme and we settled on the idea of islands. The first spot on our itinerary was Boa Island. The Island lies near the northern shore of Lough Erne and is connected by road bridges (A47) to the mainland – so no need to hire a boat or get your feet wet! If you’ve got even a...