What is recorded here

Ballysimon in County Cork holds two stone chambers at right angles, hidden beneath a levelled ringfort. People filled the first chamber after ploughing disturbed its slab in 1977, yet later exploration revealed the second chamber and a narrow creepway connecting them. The passage resists forgetting because human hands keep opening, burying, and discovering it again.

In levelled ringfort (CO041-09501-). Bowman (1934, 562) noted that 'a Man-made underground passage was here, but has been filled in'. According to local information, large slab, covering an opening, was disturbed by ploughing c. 1977. Removal of slab revealed stone-built chamber which was then backfilled. Further investigation in 1993 (pers. comm. E. Cotter) revealed two chambers at right angles to each other. Chamber 1: (L 3.2m; Wth 1.34m; H c.1m; long axis E-W); side walls and W end stone-built, E end earth-cut; roofed with lintels. Present entry through opening in E end of roof of chamber 1 where two lintels have been displaced. Creepway (L 0.94m; Wth 0.54m; H 0.48m) at S side (W end) of chamber 1 to Chamber 2; partially stone-built, partially earth-cut. Chamber 2: (L 3.7m; Wth 1m; long axis N-S); walls stone-built except for N end; roofed with lintels; displaced roof slabs and recent opening to surface at S end; evidence of previous backfilling. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 4: North Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2000). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

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