Discover Alone, back to main map

Man-made underground passage in Poulbaun (burren By.)

Man-made underground passage

What is recorded here

Inside a cashel on a Burren ridge, a curved stone passage dips below the pasture, turns north and vanishes into collapse. Westropp saw the curved chamber in 1899 while others recorded only the ridge and its distant views. The missing northern end preserves the mystery: someone cut a narrow way through living rock, roofed part of it with slabs, then left the finished path hidden beneath open sky.
In elevated rocky pasture at the SW end of a prominent limestone ridge aligned NE-SW, with clear views in all directions, and within an extensive multiperiod field system (CL005-160001-). In the NE quadrant of a cashel (CL005-160021-). The cashel is hachured on the 1840 and 1916 OS 6-inch maps, but the Man-made underground passage is not indicated. Westropp (1899, 373) remarked on the fine vista from the cashel and described the ‘curved Man-made underground passage’ within the garth. Indicated on Robinson’s map of the Burren (1977). The Man-made underground passage has an L plan. It opens NE of the centre of the cashel and travels NE (L 3.5m; Wth 1-1.4m; D 0.8m), before turning to run N (L 2.3m; Wth 1m; D 0.7m). The N end of the passage has collapsed, and the full length of the monument is unclear. The first part of the passage is unroofed (L 1.8m), and the remainder is roofed with slabs except for a short unroofed stretch in the middle.    Compiled by: Mary Tunney   Date of upload: 30 September 2025

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.

What survives
Recorded monument

Places near here

Add to this placeAdd a picture Comment or add a tip

Explore 1,118,481 places