Souterrain in Rathnew

Souterrain located beneath a pile of stones in centre of a conjoined enclosure (WM024-066----) excavated by Macalister and Praeger (1928), the results of which have been recently re-interpreted by Schot (2006). The conjoined enclosure is one of a cluster of monuments situated on the Hill of Uisneach. Nearby monuments include a mound barrow (WM024-173----) 200m to the N, an earthwork (WM024-068----) 390m to the SE, an embanked roadway annotated 'ancient road' (WM024-067----) runs onto the S side of the monument, a ringfort (WM024-063----) and holy well (WM024-60----) lie 390m to the SSW, an earthwork (WM024-065----) lies 290m to the W, a second earthwork (WM024-062---) 270m to the WNW, and a ritual pond known as Logh Lugh (WM024-064002-) 170m to the NW. The souterrain was described in 1928 as following; 'At a place where a Pile of Stones is indicated in the plan, an area was found in which the earth (normally of a red iron-oxide colour) was very black, indicating the presence of much decayed organic matter. There were however but few bones. On the other hand there were many large stones, of dimensions up to about 1' 10" [0.55m], lying in an irregular heap; no order could be observed in their disposition. At this place there was an irregular pit sunk in the Drift, and some of the stones filled it up. The appearance suggested that there had here been a carn, or perhaps a hut of the "beehive" construction with the floor sunk below the level of the ground; and that the structure had been wrecked by despoiling it of some of its stones, and allowed to fall into ruin. The "Stone" marked on the plan to the east of this "Pile of Stones" is a weathered boulder, 4' [11.2m] by 2' 6" [0.76m] by 1' 3" [0.38m], which lay just beneath the surface of the ground. When the pile of stones was removed, to see if anything was covered by it, two slabs on edge were found at the bottom. This gave a clue which we followed up; and we found that these slabs formed an entrance to a Souterrain, which had been deprived of its roofing-slabs, and had been so thoroughly filled up that there was no trace on the surface of the ground to tell of its existence. It is a straight passage, 28' [8.5m] long running northward from the two slabs mentioned. At these slabs, its southern end, it is 1' 3" [0.38m] broad; it broadens to 1' 8" [0.5m] breadth at 18' [5.5m] from the southern end; at 23' [7m] it is 2' 7" [0.78m], and here it suddenly widens into an oval bee-hive chamber, 5 ft. [1.5m] in length, and 3 ft. 6 ins. [1.06m] in maximum breadth. On the eastern side the line of the wall is continued southward for about 6 ft. [1.8m] under the pile of stones: and there is a single stone 3 ft. [0.9m] further on. These may indicate that the original length of the souterrain was 37 feet [11.27m]. The floor of the souterrain falls 2' 4" [0.71m] in the courste of its length; it is 4' 9" [1.44m] below the surface of the ground at the northern end, 5' [1.5m] at 13' [3.96m] from the end, and only 2' [0.6m] to 3' [0.9m] at the entrance. The walls are built of small stones, but there are some stones at the base measuring up to about 3 ft. [0.9m] broad and 2 ft. 6 ins. [0.76m] high'. On the 1837 edition of the OS 6-inch map the enclosure is depicted as a large circular ringfort with D-shaped annexe on the E side of the ringfort. On this map a 'Cave' or souterrain is annotated and depicted in the centre of the ringfort, the E quadrant of the ringfort interior has been divided into two small areas defined by earthen banks which run off the N & E side of a rectangular shaped platform located in the S quadrant of the ringfort. This rectangular platform appears to be the foundations of a hut site. A second possible hut site is depicted in the centre of the W annexe on the 1837 edition of the OS 6-inch map. These earthworks are clearly visible on aerial photographs taken 09/07/1964 (CUCAP AJQ092/093/094), 12/07/1966 (CUCAP AOY072/073/074) and 11/07/1969 (CUCAP AYR014/015/016). See attached plan of site taken from Schot 2006 after Macalister and Praeger 1928 Compiled and revised by: Caimin O'Brien Date of revised upload: 19 August 2019