Robert M Chapple, Archaeologist

Let’s be honest, folks – there are a lot of bad things happening in the world right now … pretty much wherever you are, politics is a roaring dumpster fire of awfulness … we’ve got universities that protect plagiarists on their staff (I see you UCL!) … Keepers of Antiquities that believe private citizens can be ordered about like medieval serfs and claim that you’re an embezzler for expecting something so outlandish as being paid for undertaking work (waves at Maeve Sikora!) … and then there’s the pandemic … it’s all just so depressingly awful. But do you know what’s brilliant? Piggy Back Rides! Sure, they don’t solve any of the above problems, but they are great. That feeling of being carried about is reassuring and throws us back to memories or fantasies of happy, carefree childhoods. How could you improve on all the great things that are encapsulated in the simple joys of the piggy back ride? How about this: a piggy back ride through a great archaeological site! And that is exactly ...

Greyabbey, Co. Down | The Graveyard [** 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 > In a recent post I enthused on the subject of the beautiful Medieval remains of the Cistercian monastery at Greyabbey. As that post already contained some 30 photographs, I thought it wisest to exclude the more recent graveyard, to the east of the main church, and save it for a separate post. I’ve visited this graveyard on several occasions, and have never failed to be taken aback by the beauty and quality of these stones. It has to be among the finest collections of 18th and 19th century gravestones in Northern Ireland. In the graveyard, looking towards the east gabl...

< Back to main post Here again, I continue to present the results of my ongoing experimentation with creating 3D (anaglyph) images. Some are better than others, but when they work they do give an extra dimension (excuse the pun) to these sites. Information on where to get glasses and the other 3D images in this blog may be found here (click for larger images). < 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 **] 3D images > On a recent trip down the Ards peninsula, the Chapple family stopped at the beautifully preserved site of Greyabbey . The site is believed to date from 1193, when this Cistercian abbey-monastery was founded by Affreca, wife of John de Courcy , the Anglo-Norman conqueror of Ulster. The surviving tradition is that Affreca founded the abbey in gratitude for a particularly difficult sea voyage – making it the only Cistercian monastery on the island to have been founded by a woman. The foundation was set up as a daughter house of the Cistercian monastery at Holmcultram , in Cumberland, and the two maintained close ...