Cave — Ballyhee

A Man-made underground passage was found when cutting a new channel for the River Fergus and building a new bridge, work which commenced in 1848 and continued for several years (O’Connell 1979, 25-6). The Man-made underground passage was named ‘Cave’ on the 1920 OS 6-inch map and is indicated on that map just S of the bridge on the W side of the channel. O’Connell (ibid., 26) shows a plan of the area (based on an unidentified OS map) and notes the cave just S of the bridge. The Man-made underground passage was described by Westropp (1917, 3) as having been found ‘in the river-cutting opposite to the ancient church of Templemaley’. He goes on to describe it as ‘25 feet long with large unscribed limestone slabs for its roof, and the sides of comparatively small stones. It has a side passage 10 feet long’. On completion, the upper portion (c. 8m) of the river cutting N of the bridge was faced with limestone blocks retaining the topsoil and subsoil while the lower portion was cut through bedrock. The river also cut through bedrock S of the bridge. On inspection in 1999 banks (H 2m) were noted on either side of the river S of the bridge but no evidence of the Man-made underground passage was visible. Compiled by: Mary Tunney Date of upload: 11 February 2019