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Man-made underground passage in Ballinlassa

Man-made underground passage

What is recorded here

Under the road cut at Lisheenmoyle, a drystone wall stands fifteen centimetres below the surface, its upper edge pressed against a natural limestone boulder. The stones are large enough to hold a chamber, yet no chamber remains visible. A road widened above what may have been a hidden room, leaving the wall buried in the embankment like a sentence cut short.
Located in a rath, which is named ‘Lisheenmoyle’on the 1838 and 1929 OS 6-inch maps. In 2003 an archaeological excavation (03E0955) was undertaken in advance of the completion of a road-widening scheme on a stretch of the road that cuts E−W through the centre of the rath (King 2003). The excavation was limited to the road cut, and focused on the portion of the rath that lies on the S side of the road. A possible Man-made underground passage were exposed in section in the N-facing road-side embankment. The remains consist of a wall (Wth 1.6m; H 1m) of drystone construction, which may represent the exterior wall face of a Man-made underground passage chamber. The wall is built with large and medium-sized limestone rubble (average size 0.3-0.4m), with the interstices between the larger stones filled with smaller stones (average size 0.1-0.2m). The upper W edge of the wall abuts a large, natural limestone boulder (L 1.55m; H 0.59m). The top of the wall is 1.5m below the top of the embankment, the base of the wall coincided with subsoil level. The wall was recorded and left in situ (King 2003, 6-9). Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy Date of upload: 7 February 2018

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

What survives
Recorded monument

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