What is recorded here

Beneath the Rathfran graveyard, a forgotten chamber waited for the earth to give way. Men digging graves in the latter half of the twentieth century broke through its roof, saw the dark void, and forgot where they had looked. When subsidence opened the passage again in 2018, two lintels still spanned the chamber, one set across the other like a crossed ribbon. They poured concrete over the mouth and buried it again, not to destroy the chamber but to stop the graveyard from swallowing someone whole.

In a graveyard (MA015-031002-), located at the break of slope on the NW slope of the hillock which the graveyard encompasses. According to local information, this Man-made underground passage was uncovered during grave-digging in the second half of the 20th century, but its exact location was not recorded at that time (Bradley and Dunne 1989, 46). In 2018, ground subsidence exposed the Man-made underground passage again. The surface opening (0.6m E−W; 0.4m N−S) was too narrow and unstable to allow access to the Man-made underground passage, however, two in situ roof lintels were visible at a depth of c. 1m below ground surface, covering a chamber; one lintel with a long axis aligned roughly NW-SE, the other set perpendicular to the E end of the former, and slightly higher than it. A third large stone, tipping downwards into the cavity from its N side, may be a displaced lintel. A portion of the chamber wall was also visible, consisting of seven courses of corbelled, dry-stone walling, aligned NNE−SSW (Zajac 2019, 7). In February 2019 archaeologically-monitored remedial works were undertaken to preserve the Man-made underground passage and insure public safety: a concrete slab was laid down to seal the opening into the Man-made underground passage, and it was then covered with soil (Zajac 2019). Attached images: MA015-031004-_01.JPG surface opening viewed from E MA015-031004-_02.JPG in situ lintels visible in base of subsidence hole, viewed from W MA015-031004-_03.JPG in situ lintel visible in base of subsidence hole, viewed from E Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 8 April 2019

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