Bishop Eoghan Mac Táil would have loved this

Image: MP Geomatics.

It's a view of their home that the original builders of Old Kilcullen in the fifth century would never have seen, writes Brian Byrne, and for the rest of us it offers an extraordinary perspective of what remains of the original monastic settlement that was one of the most important of its kind at the time.

This isn't just an aerial photograph, it's a combination of photographs shot from a drone flown by Mark Phelan, from which millions of individual points of the scene are mapped in 3D using specialised computer software, related the OSI Irish Grid.

Mark has merged his photography and drone pilot skills with his 30 years of experience in the survey industry to a business he calls MP Geomatics to offer this kind of service.

The exercise shows how relatively inexpensive unmanned aerial vehicles, and the power available in relatively inexpensive computers, have changed the dynamics of an industry. Where previously this kind of job would have entailed many hours, even days, of preparation and flypasts by fixed wing aircraft at considerable expense, then possibly time on what not so long ago would have been a very high end computer, Mark spent just 13 minutes getting his UAV set up, into the air, and then landed with all the base data sets gathered.

The data can be used subsequently for multiple angle visualisations of a site, of which the image above is just one. It is also used to generate two-dimensional drawings and sections, 3D models.

Bishop Eoghan Mac Táil was put in charge of this new monastic settlement by St Patrick, when it was established in 482, according to accounts from the time.

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