Building Ireland explores the built heritage of various Irish locations, and examines how the geography of particular places has influenced, and has been influenced by, both architecture and engineering. 

In the first episode, Dr Susan Hegarty, of the DCU School of History and Geography, heads to Cork Harbour, where she will find out about the geostrategic importance of the harbour to the British navy, and the re-purposing of the fort on Spike Island as a prison at various times over the past two centuries.  Meanwhile, her co-presenters Tim Joyce (OPW) and Orla Murphy (UCD) will look at the military engineering of the fort, and the Victorian splendor of Cobh respectively.

Subsequent programmes in this six-part series will explore Kilkenny castle and its medieval streets, Ardnacrusha and the damming of the Shannon river, the marketing of the Irish landscape for tourism in Killarney, the distilling industry in Dublin and the creation of a canal system through the limestone areas of Galway.

The series airs at 20:30 on Fridays on RT?1, with the first episode on Friday 30th September.  

For further information go to the Building Ireland Facebook page.