Robert M Chapple, Archaeologist

[** 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 **] < 3D Images As a follow-up to my recent piece on the monastic site and stone carving collection at Nendrum monastic site [ here ], I thought I should make some mention of Mahee, or ‘Nendrum’ Castle. It’s only a short distance from Nendrum, but is located on a bend with no place for parking, so it’s probably missed by the majority who make the trip out there. My advice is to park at the monastery and walk the couple of hundred metres back to take in this lovely little site. Mahee Castle from the road, with the modern road bridge to the right & Strangford Lough behind The site is the remains of a tower house , buil...

[** 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 **] Back to main post > Here are a couple of extra photos of the castle site, rendered as 3D (anaglyph) images (click for larger images). To view these, you’ll need to buy a set of the red/blue kind of 3D glasses (or make your own ). Mahee Castle from the road, with the modern road bridge to the right & Strangford Lough behind The rear wall of the castle Back to main post >

[** 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 **] Nendrum was an early Christian monastery on Mahee Island in Strangford Lough, just outside the village of Comber [ map ]. It is Northern Ireland’s best surviving example on a pre-Norman monastery. Mahee Island is named for the traditional founder of the site, St Mochaoi, a disciple of St Patrick, who is believed to have established a monastery here in the 5th century. However, no excavated finds suggest that there was a monastery here any earlier than the 7th century. From historical sources, the monastery is believed to have continued in operation until sometime between 974 and 1178. Sometime after 1177, John de Courcy esta...

[** 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 >   Prof. Etienne Rynne leading a UCG Arch Soc group on Scattery Island , Co. Clare, in 1996 (© Chapple Collection) Prof. Etienne Rynne passed away on the 22nd of June 2012. Since that time I’ve wanted to write something about him for this blog. And herein lies the difficulty: Etienne and I had – to put it mildly – a tempestuous relationship … at times we were the best of friends … and at other times … less so. In the aftermath of his death I thought about putting pen to paper … but what could I write? The appreciation that appeared, from Terry Barry , in Antiquity is fine insofar as it ...