What is recorded here

Beneath a south-facing slope in Ummera, four earth-cut chambers wait in darkness, their rectangular walls hewn rather than built. Rose Cleary entered two before instability stopped the work, finding narrow creepways and small benches that suggest people sat, crawled, or stored things below the living land. The passage may have served as a refuge, a vault, or a hidden room for ordinary life, but the collapsed earth has taken much of its meaning. What remains is a sharp-edged hole in the ground, still holding the shape of human hands.

On S-facing slope. Discovered during construction of access road; investigated by Rose Cleary (1986, 37), who recorded four earth-cut chambers; due to instability of structure only two were fully examined. Chamber 1: subrectangular (L 4.7m; Wth 1.8m; H 1.6m; long axis NW-SE); present entrance at SE end which is partly covered with soil; infilled construction shaft at NW end; earth-cut 'bench' along NW end (H 0.35m; L 1.3m); creepway to W (L 1.6m; Wth 0.3m; H 0.6m) to chamber 2. Chamber 2: subrectangular (L4m; Wth 1.8m; H 1.65m; long axis NNE-SSW); 'bench' at NE and SW ends similar to that in chamber 1; infilled construction shaft at NE end. Creepway towards N end of W side to chambers 3 and 4 (also subrectangular). The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 3: Mid Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

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