Man-made underground passage in Boolacullane — Report the wrong picture

What is recorded here

Half a metre of headroom, enough to scrape the skull on every step, and the dark returns the favour by swallowing the shape of the person who enters. The chamber appears only after the crawl, built from slabs large enough that no ordinary hand could have set them without leverage, breath or prayer. What the passage keeps is no longer written anywhere, but the stone still holds the shape of the last body that moved through it.

In a rath (KE048-087----). A stone (L c. 1.2m N-S; Wth 1m E-W), on top of the W bank of the rath covers the opening into a passage (L c. 1m) which extends to the N. A second stone (L c. 0.8m E-W; Wth 0.6m N-S), lying c. 0.25m to the S, slopes down to a further section of the passage (L c. 0.6m) extending to the S. In the 1940s, a Man-made underground passage 'just inside the south rampart', was described as leading directly into a chamber measuring '4 feet x 8 feet x 4 feet [1.2m x 2.4m x 1.2m] high' built of huge stone slabs (Minutes of the Co. Kerry Field Club 1946, vol. 2, 702-3). A 'crawl passage of 2 or 3 feet [0.6m or 0.9m]' led into a second chamber which was built off the creepway at right-angles and a further 'crawl passage' at the end of this chamber was noted but not explored (ibid.). Yet another chamber was noted off the first passage but it too could not be explored (ibid.). This may be the 'cavern' recorded in the 1840s (OSNB, Molahiffe, no. 1, 40) in Lisnacrath fort, a 'few chains North of Lissnaclinna'. (Castleisland District Archaeological Survey) Compiled by: Elizabeth Byrne, Ursula Egan and Sheila Ronan, Archaeological Survey Unit, University College, Cork. Date of upload: 31 January 2011

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