What is recorded here

Keelnagore mountain still hides a ruined ringfort above the usual sightlines, preserving a narrow stone passage that twists through the earth like a forgotten throat. The circular bank barely resists the slope, yet its inner chambers survived with lintels, jambs and a blocked southern end that suggests purpose rather than accident. People may have crept through that dark tube to mark territory, hide goods or speak to forces they believed lived beneath the hill.

Not marked on the OS maps, this very ruined enclosure, within which is a Man-made underground passage, is located on the high E slopes of Keelnagore mountain. The much denuded enclosing element defines a circular area, 14m in diameter. This survives as a bank of stony composition, 1.4m high, along the NE sector, and elsewhere as a line of boulders. At SW, beneath heavy overgrowth, is a short stretch of coursed drystone walling, .6m high and 2.7m in length. The interior of the site is terraced, and a scattering of slabs and boulders occur in its N half. Two slabs, set on edge, mark the entrance to a Man-made underground passage located in the NE quadrant of the interior of the enclosure. The entrance measures .75m wide x .45m high, and leads into a 3m long passage that runs to W. The passage is built of coursed drystone walling and is roofed with lintels. It averages 1.25m high and 1.1m wide, and an even spread of stones lines its floor. Abutting the S side of the passage are three upright slabs. A narrow creepway occurs in the W end-wall and is formed of two jambs and a lintel. Measuring .56m high and .38m wide, it is .55m long and gives access to a second passage, aligned N-S. This passage, with drystone walls and roofed with lintels, is c. 4m long but its S end is blocked by a mound of earth and stone. A possible air-vent is located at its N end. The above description is derived from A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan (compilers), 'The Iveragh peninsula: an archaeological survey of South Kerry'. Cork University Press (1996), no. 724. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 29 July 2013

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