Man-made underground passage in Dranagh (bantry By.)

Located on a shelf overlooking a NW-SE stream in a ravine c. 200m to the W. There is a record from the 1940s of the reported discovery of a small stone-built chamber filled with ashes that was c. 0.5m high and c. 0.5m below the surface (SMR file). There is no local knowledge of it now, but there is a fuller description of it in the collections of the Irish Folklore Commission (IFC: Schools Collection vol. 0901, 208), and apart from its width, it most resembles a Man-made underground passage. The discovery is described as: A work man named Edward Doyle was sent to bury a sheep. He started to dig. When he had dug about three feet (c. 0.9m) down he came upon a flag. He called two other workmen and then the boss came on the scene. They got up the flag and underneath was a fire place. About five feet (c. 1.5m) deep and seven feet (c. 2.1m) long and two feet (c. 0.6m) wide. There was soot and ashes with the stones in which it was lined. At one end there was a tunnel out into a lane way. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 3 July, 2012 Amended; 19 September, 2019