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Man-made underground passage in Lydacan (kiltartan By.)

Man-made underground passage

What is recorded here

Under the southwest edge of a Galway rath, a collapsed drystone chamber still holds its shape, forcing entry through a broken roof and leading into an L-shaped darkness. A nineteenth-century burial vault sits at one end, perhaps built upon the older line, while a blocked recess in the east wall hints that the passage once served more than forgetting. What was hidden there, whether treasure, bone, belief or warning, has gone quiet, but the angle of the stone and the shape of the hole preserve the fact that someone wanted part of the world kept from sight.
Within the SW quadrant of a rath (GA113-164----). This largely collapsed drystone-built Man-made underground passage (L >16.8m) is L-shaped in plan. The long axis (L 7.8m) runs NNE-SSW. Access is gained roughly midway along it where a roof lintel has collapsed. Only the NNE end of the chamber (L 4.3m; Wth 1.35m; H 1.35m) survives intact. A partly blocked recess or creep is visible in the E side-wall. To the SSW of the access point the line of the Man-made underground passage is traceable as a linear depression for a further 3.5m. At this point the depression turns sharply to the SW and continues for a further 5.5m. At its W end there is a 19th-century burial vault (L 3m), which appears to have been built on the line of the Man-made underground passage. Compiled by: Galway Archaeological Survey, UCG Date of upload: 15 February 2018

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What survives
Recorded monument

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