Man-made underground passage in Cush

Man-made underground passage in S quadrant of bivallate ringfort (LI048-034037-) excavated by Ó Ríordáin (1940, 128-132) between 1934-5. A second Man-made underground passage (LI048-034033-) was uncovered in the N quadrant of the ringfort. Excavations uncovered the remains of a Man-made underground passage (L. 10m; Wth 0.9m - 1.5m), described by Ó Ríordáin (1940, 128-9) as; 'The southern Man-made underground passage was 33 feet [10m] in length and had attached to its southern end a ventilation passage 16 feet [4.9m] long. The Man-made underground passage may be regarded as of two parts, which a break in the continuity of the stone walls showed to have been built at different dates. The southern portion of the Man-made underground passage was fairly regularly straight-sided but closed in somewhat where it met the more irregularly-built northern portion. The southern part was somewhat under 3 feet [0.9m] in width but the northern part widened, by reason of a bend in the eastern wall to 5 feet [1.5m]. The symmetrical plan of the southern portion of the structure and the inferior stone-work of the northern part suggest that the latter was the later addition. The ventilation shaft of this Man-made underground passage was the best example of this feature found in any of the Cush Man-made underground passages. It was almost sixteen feet long and had a width of 10 inches [0.25m] internally. Some of the covering of flat slabs remained in position. The depth was on an average about 1 foot [0.3m], though some of the side slabs had a height of 19 inches [0.48m]. The ventilation passage joined the end wall of the Man-made underground passage at the top, at a height of 5 feet [1.5m] above the floor'. No surface remains visible on Digital Globe orthoimage taken between 2011-13 or on Google Earth orthoimages. See attached plans from Ó Ríordáin and Google Earth orthoimages. Compiled by: Fiona Rooney Date of upload: 25 August 2021