Man-made underground passage in Loughcrew

Discovered c. 1824 'by a labourer who was trenching the ground and came upon one of the large flags on top' (Conwell 1864, 48). The original entrance has been disturbed and reconfigured by 19th century landscaping. The Man-made underground passage consists of an entrance passage which runs SW and incorporates a trap-door feature short of mid-way along its length (overall L c. 14m). The passage terminates in a T-junction. The right-hand passage runs NW and turns W in a dog-leg that incorporates another trap-door feature: this leads via a further passage to a beehive chamber (diam. 4m; H 2.6m). The left-hand passage runs SE for 14m and terminates in a beehive chamber (diam. 5.15m - 5.6m; H 2.9m). (Moore 1987, 53, No. 437; Clinton 1993) Compiled by: Paul Walsh Date of upload: 6 November 2012