Souterrain in Corkan

Situated on a small natural rise, in gently undulating pasture and having a modern field fence running E-W, to the immediate N of the opening. Site of church (WM107-053----), abbey (WM017-054----) and ogham stone (WM017-054002-) 423m to W. Souterrains (WM017-065---) 300m to SW with second souterrain (WM017-051----) 655m to WSW. According to local information, this souterrain was discovered c. 1940s-1950s when excavating a small gravel pit. The pit was closed up and was not reopened until the mid-1970s when the souterrain was rediscovered.Not indicated on any OS historic mapping and not visible on Digital Globe aerial photography. Monument described in 1977 as a rectangular stone built chamber (L 6.6m; Wth 1.87-3m; H 1.75m) running E-W visible just below ground level. The enclosing drystone walls are built in regular courses using rubble stone. These walls rise vertically almost to the level of the roof where there are two to three courses of slight corbelling. Some of the stones in the wall are quite large blocks of limestone with small pinning stones. The roof is built of seven large lintels laid on top of the walls with those at the W end being substantial. A small area at the E-end of the chamber is now blocked off by a later secondary wall, which may have been constructed to support a weakness in the roof at this point. It is built of rougher stones in irregular courses and is not bonded into the other walls of the chamber. The original entrance into the chamber seems to have been via a narrow lintelled opening in the NE corner. This is now blocked off by collapse and may have been deliberately closed off when the blocking wall was built. The present entrance is through a hole in the roof, to the immediate W of the blocking wall and just N of the S wall of the chamber. There is a small rectangular recess (Wth 0.6m; H 1m; D 0.55m) in the W wall at the SW corner. There is another rectangular recess (Wth 0.68m; H 0.6m; D 0.69m) in the W wall just at the S end of the blocking wall. This latter recess had been closed off by the later blocking wall but is now just accessible through a hole in this wall. The floor of the chamber and the two recesses have been disturbed by recent digging particularly at the W end where the natural gravel is visible at the end of the W recess. There are a number of large blocks lying on the interior: One against the middle of the N wall, one against the S wall, near the SW corner and one roughly in the centre of the floor. There are also some smaller stones scattered across the floor area. It is not clear where these stones came from as they do not seem to have derived from the souterrain structure. A large inscribed stone (WM017-057001-) in the centre of the floor appears to be inscribed with the letter ‘U’ with a possible ‘I’. There are some animal bones and teeth scattered around the interior and some small flecks of charcoal. A small button was found in disturbed soil just outside the W recess. See attached cross-sections of monument surveyed and drawn by the ASI. Compiled by: Alison McQueen, Vera Rahilly and Caimin O’Brien Date of upload: 12 December 2018