What is recorded here

Six feet below the ordinary soil of Derrycoffey, workmen for Matthew Killian broke through earth into vaults built with stones carried from far away. The chamber held bones and answered to no local legend except the proud claim that Danish hands had shaped it. Killian dug through pride and expectation, but the vaults did not belong to either man. They belonged to the region, where distance and memory bend around one another until neither can be named.

Unlocated Man-made underground passage or cists within townland that is mentioned in the Offaly Independent on the 25th July, 1925 and on the 01 August 1925, under an article called 'Danish vaults in Croghan'. The area where these 'vaults' were found was known locally as the 'Danish Holes'. Described in the report as 'workmen under the employment of MR. Matthew Killian, they found at a depth of about six feet from the surface, a series of vaults containing bones, which are believed to be human. These vaults are skilfully constructed of stonework and over each was a flat slab of fire-stone, which must have been carried a great distance, as no such stone is to be found in the neighbourhood'. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Offaly' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 23 May 2011

A Neolithic cist tomb; significance relates to early burial practices and possible links to Croghan Hill's wider prehistoric landscape.

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