Man-made underground passage in Cush

Man-made underground passage in SE quadrant of ringfort (LI048-034026-) excavated by Ó Ríordáin (1940, 128-132) between 1934-5. Excavation of the interior of ‘Ringfort 2’ uncovered the remains of a Man-made underground passage, described by Ó Ríordáin (1940, 96) as follows; ‘Running from near the centre in a direction slightly south of east was a Man-made underground passage which had a length of a little over 14 feet [4.26m] and an average breadth of somewhat less than 2 feet [0.6m]. The clay at the western end had been cut away so as to slope from the ground surface to the floor of the Man-made underground passage thus forming an approach to the latter. The stones shown at the north-eastern corner of this Man-made underground passage were evidently the remains of a ventilation shaft such as we shall see much better represented in connection with Man-made underground passages in some of the other Ring-Forts.’ See attached plans and photos taken from Ó Ríordáin and Google Earth orthoimages. Compiled by: Fiona Rooney Date of upload: 2 September 2021