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Man-made underground passage in Walshestown (muskerry East By.)

Man-made underground passage

What is recorded here

Inside the north entrance of the Walshestown ringfort, a stone-lined chamber with a lintelled roof runs south-westerly into the earth. Farmers ploughing the interior around 1925 broke through the hidden passage, exposing a deliberate underground room rather than a natural cave. The chamber may have served as a shelter, store, or ritual space for the people who lived within the fort, while hollows in the south-west quadrant still mark its forgotten path.
In NW quadrant of ringfort (CO072-050001-). Hartnett (1939, 136) was informed locally of an underground chamber with 'stone-lined walls and lintelled roof', running from 'inside the entrance at the north, in a south-westerly direction'. Discovered c. 1925 while ploughing interior (ibid.). Hollows in SW quadrant may indicate position. 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

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

What survives
Recorded monument

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