What is recorded here

Under Millstreet, men dug a narrow stone chamber and failed to finish it. They left a pit beside it and departed, perhaps frustrated by the stubborn earth. The chamber waited in darkness for centuries until house builders broke the soil above in 2003. What was abandoned became a clue, preserving the shape of an interrupted human attempt.

This Man-made underground passage was discovered in 2003 during the construction of local-authority houses on the outskirts of Millstreet; it was subsequently excavated. It consisted of a single drystone-built chamber (L 2.5m; Wth 0.85m; H 1.07m), roofed by three large lintels. The excavator concluded that the Man-made underground passage was probably abandoned before completion as there was no evidence for an entrance and access to it was provided through the open-ended SW corner of the chamber. A large rectangular pit was found at right angles to the SE corner of the chamber, at a distance of 1.9m. It appeared to have been back-filled soon after it was dug and the occurrence of large amounts of stones indicated that an unsuccessful attempt had been made to construct stone facing. Two trenches (L 30m) that were excavated to the W and S of the Man-made underground passage did not reveal any evidence for any enclosure around the Man-made underground passage. (McCarthy 2006a, 64) The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 5' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2009). Date of upload: 22 December 2009

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