What is recorded here

Hachured is a man-made underground passage hidden within a ringfort on Mortlestown Hill, County Limerick. It joins a nearby cahir and stone circle, forming a quiet chamber where human hands shaped the earth long before modern memory. The passage may have served as a refuge, a treasury or a ceremonial threshold, yet no written account confirms its true purpose. What is certain is that the hill still holds the shape of that choice, waiting for someone brave enough to imagine it without breaking the silence.

In pasture, on the SE facing slope of Mortlestown Hill, 40m W of townland boundary with Ballinlyna Lower. ‘Cahir Mortle’ (LI056-011001-) and ringfort (LI056-011002-) lie 500m to the NW and a stone circle (LI056-014----) lies 264m to the E. Depicted on the 1840 ed. OSi 6-inch map as a circular-shaped area enclosed by a bank. Shown on the 1897 ed. OSi 25-inch map as a raised D-shaped area defined by a scarp from SE-S-W-N-NE with fosse and bank with external fosse from SE-S-W-NW incorporated into a field boundary. A Man-made underground passage (LI056-013001-) is shown in W quadrant on Cassini ed. OSi 6-inch map. In 1931 the monument was described as; ‘two moats or lisses with Man-made underground passages’ (O’Shaughnessy and Carroll 1931, 69-70). Monument visible as circular shaped area defined by a tree-lined fosse with bank from SE-S-W-NW, intersected at N by a trackway running roughly E-W on Digital Globe orthoimage taken between 2011-2013 and on Google Earth orthoimages. See attached Google Earth orthoimages Compiled by: Fiona Rooney Date of upload: 23 November 2021

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.