RTE - The Burren Heart of Stone (2021)

The Burren is a place full of intrigue and mystery to film-maker Katrina Costello, who has been working there for over 13 years. 'It is not a landscape that gives up her secrets easily, but in every fold of rock and around every corner there is always a new surprise'. Her love for that landscape is obvious, which captures the raw and complicated beauty of the Burren using intimate natural history photography and the spontaneous insights of a cast of local contributors.

Audiences are taken on a journey through the ages, tracing the genetic story of the Irish people. It tells the story of the Irish hunter-gatherers and reveals what became of them. It asks if prehistoric farmers irreversibly altered this landscape and if modern Irish society is descended from those who first lived here over 10,000 years ago?

Chapter 1 Symphony of Life

Moves through the natural cycles of the seasons, witnessing spectacular scenes from the natural world, discovering Celtic rainforests and exploring complex subjects, like the formations of the rocks and underground caverns and mysterious disappearing lakes on the Burren.

Chapter 2 Song of Our Ancestors

We discover what Ireland might have looked like when the first nomadic big-game hunters came here. Using contemporary archaeology techniques and research, the film follows the three distinct populations that lived in Ireland in prehistoric times and unravels the secrets of this unique and mysterious landscape and those who lived on it.

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