Show Notes
In this chapter of The Bog Bodies, our journey takes us beyond the mysteries of Old Croghan Man and Clonycavan Man to stop and consider the landscapes that shaped them – and how we can connect with these places today. Travel writer Fionn Davenport pauses the archaeological trail to ask a quieter question: if these places still hold meaning, how do we approach them with curiosity, care and a sense of wonder? From the royal landscapes of Tara, Rathcroghan and Uisneach to lesser-known hill...
More from The Discovery Series: The Bog Bodies
In the final episode of The Discovery Series: The Bog Bodies, it’s time to bring everything together. Travel writer Fionn Davenport is joined by Anthony Murphy of Mythical Ireland to sift through the evidence and explore the three leading theories behind the deaths of Old Croghan Man and Clonycavan Man. Drawing on archaeology, belief systems and landscape, they weigh what we know - and what remains unknowable. As the journey comes to a close, there’s space for reflection. Fionn re...
Episode 3 takes us to Loughcrew in County Meath, where travel writer Fionn Davenport witnesses the autumn equinox at one of Ireland’s most extraordinary ritual landscapes. It’s a moment when the rising sun meets ancient stone and the beliefs of the ancestors feel very close indeed. Here, Fionn speaks with archaeologist Dan Maher about Loughcrew’s significance on the celestial calendar and the myths woven into the land. Later, he hears from Eimear Burke, Druid and Chosen Chief of the Ord...
In this second episode, travel writer Fionn Davenport heads to the Hill of Tara, ancient Ireland’s seat of power, to confront the central mystery of the bog bodies: why did Clonycavan Man and Old Croghan Man kneel before their killers? To understand their world, he begins where the high kings of the Bronze and Iron Ages were crowned. With insights from Hill of Tara guide Margaret Brady, archaeologists Dr Jacqueline Cahill Wilson and Dr Rena Maguire, and former National Museum Keeper Eam...
Two bodies emerge from the bog – their skin preserved, their secrets intact. In this first episode, travel journalist Fionn Davenport retraces the extraordinary discoveries at Croghan Hill in Offaly and Ballivor in Meath, where two Iron Age men were pulled from the peat after 2,500 years. With experts Amanda Pedlow and Noel French, he pieces together those first startling details – the manicured nails, the carefully styled hair, the brutal wounds – that revealed these were no ordinary burials...
Two Celtic chieftains. Two ritual killings. One mystery buried for 2,500 years. This investigative series digs deep into Ireland’s ancient past to reopen two of the country’s coldest cases – Old Croghan Man and Clonycavan Man. Follow a trail of clues through sacred landscapes, archaeological sites and mysterious peatlands as we uncover who these men were, why they died, and what their stories reveal about Iron Age Ireland. Along the way, you’ll discover the real places, legends, and experienc...