What is recorded here

Ten metres of hollow darkness lay buried beneath Cormeen, waiting for a gas pipeline to tear the earth open and reveal its abandoned shape. Three shallow steps led into the eastern entrance, but the passage never finished its descent because human hands stopped digging and natural clay swallowed the work. The charcoal flecks scattered through the fill suggest a fire burned nearby when the project failed, leaving behind a hole that became a story about the limits of human ambition.

Situated on a col with slightly lower ground to the NW, NE and SE and higher ground to the SW, but the exact location is not known. A rath (ME005-111001-) and Man-made underground passage were partially excavated (92E0052) in Cormeen as part of a Bord Gáis Eireann pipeline from Dunleer, Co. Louth, to Mullagh, Co. Cavan. All features were truncated and only survived in the subsoil. A Man-made underground passage was exposed as a trench (L 10.3m; Wth 0.8m at the entrance to 2.5m at W) associated with gullies and post-holes within the rath. The Man-made underground passage was an undifferentiated passage with three steps leading to the entrance at E. It might never have been completed and was backfilled with re-deposited natural clay with charcoal flecks (max. D 2.6m at W). There was no silt on the floor, and the uppermost fill was rich in charcoal. (McConway 1992; McConway and Halpin 1992) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 6 September 2018

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