Robert M Chapple, Archaeologist

Books ( Source ) Hello and welcome back to the 12th installment of my series on what’s interesting and worth a read in (mostly) Irish archaeology. But first, go check out Stuart Rathbone’s new book Archaeological Boundaries. Discussions, Experiments and Unprovoked Attacks . It’s brilliant and I think it’s one of the most important books on Irish archaeology ever published. Go take a look and then come back for a gander at these! Philip Macdonald The Road From Drumclay Clare Downham The break up of Dál Riata and the rise of Gallgoídil Jessica Smyth Tides of Change? The House through the Irish Neolithic Eamonn Kelly Objects Found in the Vicinity of a Holy Well at Bellewstown, Co. Meath Eamonn Kelly Antiquities from Irish holy wells and their wider context Catherine Swift John O'Donovan and Thomas le Keu - preliminary comments on processes of Anglicisation of Irish surnames Catherine Swift Celtic berserkers and feeble steersmen: Hiberno-Scan...

[** 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 I | PartII | Additional Photographs Approach to the site from the jetty Welcome to this, the concluding part of the Chapple family’s 2013 summer adventures in Fermanagh. One weekend in August we were pondering what to do and where to go. My lovely and very patient wife remarked that I have a tendency, when caring for our children on my own, to take them to Fermanagh for days out. I suggested that, if she felt left out, I’d happily take the lot of us to Fermanagh … but that I was thinking of completing our trio of island adventures. She enquired as to the island I had in mind and when I said ‘Devenish’ she was ...