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Man-made underground passage in Castletown (morgallion By.)

Man-made underground passage

What is recorded here

Ten metres of clay and gravel still mark the passage beneath the Castletown rath, with a four-metre spur reaching south from its west end. People probably dug through solid earth to reach water, deposit a body or keep something hidden from the rain. The nearby stream and the charcoal beside the post-hole suggest the dark tunnel served a living purpose rather than appearing as a casual mistake.
Located at the SE tip of a low NW-SE spur, with the headwaters of a small N-S stream c. 50m to the E. A magnetic gradiometer survey (19R0077) conducted by J. Nicholls on behalf of Meath County Council identified a rath (ME012-052----) (Nicholls 2019, 7). There is a linear feature (dims c. 10m E-W; c. 2m N-S) in the interior with a spur (L c. 4m) extending S from its W end. This is probably a Man-made underground passage, and archaeological testing (19E0565) exposed it as a band (Wth 1.8m) of clay and gravel with some stones and flecks of charcoal. There was a post-hole with charcoal just to its N. (Moore 2019, 9-4) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload; 1 March 2021

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What survives
Recorded monument

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