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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Souterrain

Gortaclare, County Clare, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Souterrain, Gortaclare, County Clare, with a pin at the register's coordinates
Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915), covering this location. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland. The pin is ours, placed from the register's coordinates.

The record

Townland
Gortaclare
County
Clare
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Cave
Coordinates
53.08165, -9.06480
SMR number
CL006-040002-

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

4 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1753 map "Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1753 · Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1790 · Composite: Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1869 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

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This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

On a low knoll of improved pastureland. Formerly within a ringfort (CL006-040----) of which there is no visible trace at ground level. Indicated and named cave on the 1915 ed. of the OS 6-inch map. A three-chambered souterrain with drystone sidewalls and upper corbelled course supporting massive roof lintels. The souterrain is entered through its NE corner at the E end of chamber 1, through a narrow clay-filled opening under its roof lintel. The infilled clay obscures the original end of this chamber which was probably also the original entrance. Chamber 1 (L 7.6m; Wth 1.35m; H 1.9m) is orientated E–W. A long narrow creep (L 4.1m; Wth 0.78m; H 0.98m) leads S from W end of chamber 1 to chamber 2. At the S end of the creep jambstones narrow the ope to only 0.3m in width. Chamber 2 (L 9.4m; Wth 1.55m; H 1.8m) runs N–S, in line with the first creep, and at its S end a second creep (L 1.55m; Wth 0.75m; H 1.1m) leads E to the third and smallest chamber (L 4.65m; Wth 1.55m; H 1.85m). The second creep has a sillstone placed midway along its length. Most of the stone in the souterrain is limestone but the sill and two jambstones are conglomerates.

Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Ros Ó Maoldúin

Date of upload: 27 July 2021

Nearby in the register

Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.

Sites and Monuments Record data: National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Record text is reproduced unchanged. National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland · CC BY 4.0
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