What is recorded here

No. Under the NW quadrant of that Cork enclosure, two stone chambers still breathe in darkness, joined by a creepway narrow enough to force a human body into humility. Windele cleared the entrance in 1850 and crawled through what the 1839 survey had merely called an open cave mouth. The chambers are small, corbelled, and angled like a hidden room beneath a ringfort, with a scored stone hanging near the second chamber as if marked by someone who wanted it remembered. What they stored, watched, or fled into remains unknown, but the passage itself is clear: people built underneath what they stood above.

In NW quadrant of enclosure (CO041-04401-); standing stone (CO041-04405-) and ringfort (CO041-04404-) 28.5m to SE. Windele had entrance cleared and entered Man-made underground passage in 1850 (Grove White 1905-25, vol. 3, 334). Recorded as 'the entrance to a cave (the mouth of which is open)' in the OS Field Book of 1839 (ibid.). Described by McCarthy (1977, 284-5; compass directions amended), based on Windele's investigations and a plan by S.P. O Riordáin, as entrance passage and at least two stone-built chambers joined by creepways. Chamber 1: (L 2.28m; Wth 1m; H 1.52m; long axis NW-SE) irregular in plan; side walls corbelled; original entrance passage (blocked) at NW end; blocked creepway in N corner; creepway (L 1.21m; Wth 0.3m) at SE end to chamber 2. Chamber 2: (L 2.6m; Wth 1.21m; H 1.52m; long axis ENE-WSW) subrectangular in plan; side walls corbelled. At NNE end, stone with linear scores hangs from roof 0.3m out from wall. Opening to Man-made underground passage still visible. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 4: North Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2000). 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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