Robert M Chapple, Archaeologist

1998: Rowan Atkinson and assorted clerics on east window of chancel There are many fine and gorgeous archaeological and historic sites of all ages in the Burren, Co. Clare, but among my personal favourites is Kilfenora. Very little is known of St. Fachanan beyond the tradition that he founded the first church here in the 6 th century and that he is remembered as the first Bishop of Kilfenora. Whatever the truth in the tradition, no buildings survive from that early phase. In any event, Kilfenora wasn’t a particularly important religious centre until the mid-12 th century when it was upgraded to being a Diocese and much of the standing architecture belongs to the decades immediately after this increase in status. The western, nave, portion of this late-12 th to early 13 th century building is still used as a Church of Ireland place of worship, but the chancel is unroofed and boasts a finely carved window. The latter is decorated with several clerics, at least one of which bears more...

Trim Castle sits on the banks of the River Boyne and is mostly famous as one of the locations where Mel Gibson's 1995 movie Braveheart was set. At various times in the movie Trim stood in for the City of York and parts of London. This is unfortunate as the castle should be better know as one of the locations where Samuel Fuller's 1980 movie  The Big Red One , starring Lee Marvin and Mark Hamill, was filmed. Here the castle stands in for one in Germany during World War II. Even then, it only appears in the 2004 version of the movie known as 'The Reconstruction' that tried to better recreate Fuller's vision of the movie, before it was unsympathetically re-edited by Warner Bros., but I digress. The castle has a long building history that stretches from the 12th century onwards. You can read all about it (and the movies) on the Wiki page [ here ]. I’ve compiled the tour into a consecutive YouTube playlist [ here ], or you can access each video clip individually here: P...