Movie (1969)
Guns in the Heather aka The Secret of Boyne Castle & The Spy Busters
Guns in the Heather (theatrical title) or The Secret of Boyne Castle (television title) is a wild romp through late 1960's Ireland with two school chums being pursued by agents from an unknown nation (Russia?).
The story opens with an automobile chase scene of a mortally wounded Irish agent (An Garda Síochána?) being chased by the spies. The chase ends at a boarding school and the spies will not follow the man they wounded onto the school grounds.
The wounded man is looking for an American student at the school by the name of Rich Evans. With his dying breath, he tells Rich to look "...in my room at Boyne Castle."
Rich with his friend Sean O'Connor set off for Boyne Castle but on the way are kidnapped by the spies who believe that Rich knows something that his older brother Tom (who unbeknownst to Rich is a secret agent) knows. The indignant Rich replies, "...Tom's a sales representative for a steel company."
Rich and Sean manage to escape from the "bad guys" and this is where the real fun begins. With the Irish countryside and (non-existent at that date) highway system as a backdrop, a cross-country chase ensues with Rich and Sean being pursued by the spies.
Though continually getting into and then out of scrapes with them, Rich and Sean use considerable ingenuity to evade their pursuers. All the while Rich is wondering what his brother Tom's involvement in all this is.
The "secret" of course lies at Boyne Castle.
Incidentally, there is not and never has been a "Lord Boyne". In fact, Ireland does not have "Lords" and has not had them since gaining its independence from Great Britain in 1923. Northern Ireland (still under British domination) still has some "Lords", but this movie is set in the 1960s and entirely within the Republic which does not and did not have them. Boyne Castle is an actual place, but it is a "ruin" and not even in Ireland. Boyne Castle is a 16th-century quadrangular castle about 1.5 miles east of Portsoy, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, 0.5 miles south of Boyne Bay. The overgrown ruins of this once majestic castle sit forlornly in the Scottish countryside.
Trim Castle stands on the edge of the River Boyne in Trim in County Meath. It is now connected to a museum and no one lives in it. Trim Castle is the largest, best-preserved & most impressive Anglo-Norman castle in Ireland. Trim get its name from the Irish Baile Átha Troim, meaning ‘Town of the Ford of the Elder Trees', indicating that this was an important fording point on the River Boyne. Such was the significance of this crossing point that by the fifth century a chieftain's dún (fort) and an early monastery were sited here. Trim Castle was built In 1172, shortly after the arrival of the Anglo-Normans in Ireland. King Henry II granted his baron Hugh de Lacy the Kingdom of Meath, along with custody of Dublin. The King feared that another of his barons Richard de Clare (also known as Strongbow) might set up a rival Anglo-Norman kingdom in Ireland, and gave de Lacy Meath as a counterbalance to Strongbow's power-base in the south of Leinster.
For strategic reasons, de Lacy decided to make Trim, rather than Drogheda, the center of his newly acquired lordship. De Lacy converted a ring-fort into a wooden castle with a spiked stockade. This structure was seen as a threat by the Gaelic Irish and in 1174 Rory O'Connor, King of Connacht (and last High King of Ireland), attacked and it was destroyed. The following year work began on a more permanent stone replacement and over the following decades Hugh de Lacy (d. 1186) and his son Walter constructed the largest Anglo-Norman castle in Ireland. Initially a stone keep, or tower, replaced the wooden fortification. The keep was remodeled and then surrounded by curtain walls and a moat. The wall, punctuated by several towers and a gatehouse, fortified an area of about 3 acres. Most of the castle visible today was completed by 1220.
The Secret of Boyne Castle was originally broadcast in parts on Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color in the United States under the title The Secret of Boyne Castle, then re-edited for a European theatrical release under the English title, Guns in the Heather. It was re-broadcast on American television in 1978 under the title Spy-Busters. It was filmed in and around the west coast of Ireland and the beautiful landscapes and villages of the country are wonderful to see. The film was primarily shot on location in Ireland (St. Flannan's College in Ennis, Corkscrew Hill, Corofin and Kilfenora, County Clare feature) with additional scenes shot at Pinewood Studios near London, England. "Boyne Castle" is actually Dunguaire Castle in lovely County Galway.