What is recorded here

Closed in 1845, the passage waited half a century for men to pry it open again. It holds a beehive chamber three metres wide at the southern end, while the northern corridor makes a hairpin turn into an eastern passage blocked by collapse. The stepped floors and curved walls suggest people built it to descend, not merely to hide.

Located on a fairly low N-S spur at the S base of the Hill of Lloyd. A Man-made underground passage at Newrath Big was known from c. 1845 (Hanley 1967, 60) when it was closed but it was re-opened in the 1890s (Healy 1891) and fully surveyed in the 1975 (Sweetman 1975). It consists of a lintelled passage (L 9.8m N-S) which terminates at the S end in a beehive chamber (diam. 3m; H 2m) that was largely filled with stones. The floor and the roof of the passage stepped down (H 0.6; 0.8m) 5m from the entrance to the chamber and the passage curves to the NE N of this point. At its N end this passage makes a hair-pin turn into an E passage (L 6m plus NNE-SSW) that extends southwards. The roof and floor of this passage also stepped down (1m; 0.7m) close to the junction with the W passage, but its S end is blocked by collapse. The present entrance is at the NW edge of rath (ME016-023001-). The rath (ME055001-) and Man-made underground passage (ME016-055----) are c. 170m to the ESE. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Meath' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1987), No. 442. Revised by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 26 February 2019 Amended: 27 November 2019

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