What is recorded here

Killegland church stands above a hidden passage where a rectangular chamber leads into a curving tunnel and ends in a beehive chamber. Built near the churchyard ditch, it may have served worshippers, workers, or anyone who needed a dry route through wet ground. No objects survived to confirm that purpose, but the shape suggests intention rather than accident. The passage still lies beneath the fallow ground south of the graveyard, waiting to be imagined.

Situated in a level landscape S of Killegland church (ME045-004----). Archaeological testing (05E1321) by S. Halliday of Site I in advance of a housing development identified numerous archaeological features (exscavations.ie 2006:1496). The area was further investigated (06E0871) by J. Kavanagh (excavations.ie 2006:1499) who sampled some of the features. This Man-made underground passage was located c. 25m S of the graveyard. A rectangular entrance chamber (dims 4.2m x 3.4m) consisting of only the basal courses (max. H 0.4m) has a cross-wall (L 2.2m) with an opening on the N side. This chamber was probably always visible on the surface. It led to the slightly curving passage (L 17.4m) extending ESE, of which only the basal courses (H 0.3-0.9m) survived, but it had a metaled floor surface where it ran over a silted ditch. The passage was roughly parallel with the S ditch of the ecclesiastical enclosure (ME045-004004-), and at the E end was a circular beehive chamber (int. diam. 3.2m) with drystone walls (max. H 1.7m). No artefacts were recovered from the Man-made underground passage, but It is now preserved in the fallow area (radius c. 30m) around the graveyard. (Halliday 2007, 18-19) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 22 December 2021

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