What is recorded here

The beehive chamber still stands complete beneath the Hill of Lloyd, waiting for a lamp and two steady hands. Its three passages twist through living earth, past a hidden upper room and a narrow breathing vent, while a rath keeps watch above. George II’s coin and broken slipware suggest curious humans entered before records existed, perhaps playing with darkness or hiding something small. The chamber does not need discovery; it needs company.

Located on a low N-S spur at the S base of the Hill of Lloyd. A complex Man-made underground passage, the entrance to which is c. 10m inside the boundary of a rath (ME016-055001-) at W, was discovered in May 1998 and recorded fully (Clinton and Manning 2000). It consists of three passages and a beehive chamber. A halfpenny of George II and some slipware was found in one of the passages, and these indicate an earlier discovery in the eighteenth century. From the present entrance, which is also the original earth-cut drop-entrance shaft (D c. 2m), a lintelled opening (Wth 0.74-0.98m; H 0.85m) entered the curved angle of a passage that runs SE (Wth at floor 1.95-2m; Wth at roof 0.75-1.2m; max. H 1.5m), but it is blocked (L 3m plus) by collapse. From the entrance a second passage also runs SSW (L 8.5m; max. Wth at floor 1.75m; Wth at roof 1m; max. H 1.48m) and then NW (L 9m; max. Wth at floor 1.4m; Wth at roof 0.92m; max. H 1.4m). Towards the end of this passage the roof drops and a dwarf wall (H 0.5m) on the floor allows access through a narrow opening (Wth 1m; H 0.6m) to a shaft that rises through the passage roof to a small upper chamber (dims 1.1m NW-SE; 0.8m NE-SW; H 1m). This chamber opened directly at NW onto a second, narrower and higher passage (Wth at floor c. 0.85m; Wth at roof c. 0.45-0.55m; H c. 1.25m) that runs NNE (L c. 16m; ) to a beehive chamber. There is a cupboard (Wth 0.4m; H 0.4m; D 0.65m) at the S end of the W wall of this passage. A sill marks the entrance to the subcircular beehive chamber (dims of base 4.6m E-W; 4m N-S), the walls of which corbel in (max. H 3.12m) from the floor and which is closed by two stones. There is an air-vent (Wth 0.32m; H 0.15-0.2m; L 1.3m plus) on the N side of the beehive chamber. The rath (ME016-023001-) and Man-made underground passage (ME016-023002-) are c. 170m to the WNW. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of revised upload: 26 February 2019

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