Souterrain

The National Monuments Service's description

Within the NE quadrant of a cashel (CL003-013001-). Indicated and named ‘cave’ on the 1842 and 1915 eds. of the OS 6-inch maps. A souterrain comprising a stone-lined and lintelled chamber (8.75m ENE–WSW; 1.95m NNW–SSE; H 1.6m) with a rounded WSW end and clay floor. A square ope defined by two jambstones and a lintel (0.75m by 0.75m) near the WSW end of the chamber leads off towards the SSE into a creep (traceable L 2.6m; Wth 0.8m). Its S end is filled to roof level with clay and it may have led to another chamber. This may be the chamber reported by Cooke (1851, 297). The current entrance is at the ENE end of the chamber (1.2m) where a lintel has been displaced; this may be an original entrance or a creep. In Cooke’s time, two chambers connected by a creep were accessible. The second was of similar dimension to the first and ran perpendicular. He also reported the find of a ‘fairy millstone’, a round stone an inch and a half in diameter. He did not note whether it was perforated, but it is likely to have been a spindle whorl.

Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Ros Ó Maoldúin

Date of upload: 15 December 2020

References

Cooke, T.L. 1851 On some subterraneous chambers in the County of Clare. Journal of the Royal Society of Ireland 1, 294-8.