What is recorded here

Beneath ordinary pasture in Stephenstown, a long curving stone throat dips into the earth, narrow enough to force a person into single file and long enough to lose the sky. Its western chamber waited in darkness for centuries before grading tools broke the silence, revealing corbelled stones and a medieval pottery shard that marked the moment the roof finally surrendered. The passage may have served as a hidden route, a seasonal refuge or a forgotten boundary marker for the field system above. It vanished again under new ground, but the shape of that breath holds on in memory, a buried chamber still waiting for someone to listen.

Discovered during grading operations in advance of building on a south-facing site in a field of lowland pasture. Comprises a long, curving, drystone-built passage (L 22.75m; H 0.8-1m; Wth 0.75-0.95m) which runs on a WSW-ENE axis. The floor of this passage slopes down gradually in line with the terrain. A circular, unroofed chamber with traces of corbelling (diam.5m; H 0.6-0.8m) entered from a short passage (L 1.5m) opens off the W side of the main passage. A sherd of medieval pottery was found in the upper fill of the chamber indicating a medieval date for its collapse. A second section of passage leading towards the chamber, was exposed in further works. The site has since been covered (Clinton 1998, 120-22 ). Archaeological investigations in the vicinity uncovered a bivallate ringfort (DU005-115) and early medieval field system (Kavanagh, 2011). Compiled by: Geraldine Stout Updated by: Christine Baker Date of upload: 15 November 2014

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