Souterrain

The National Monuments Service's description

In pasture on the S side of the road leading W out of Ballyhale village. A souterrain in a hollow near a stream was noted during a field inspection in 1989. A large capstone with other smaller stones around it was described and the passage appeared to extend NW-SE but was inaccessible. Test-trenching in the same area in 2007 in advance of a proposed housing scheme (Licence no. 07E0524) revealed two subterranean features comprising boulder and sandstone walls topped with flatter, well-laid capstones at a depth of 1.8m beneath the present ground surface. Although the construction is of the style associated with souterrains the dimensions were very small (Wth 0.6m; H 0.6m). The passages may have been associated with an adjacent 19th century mill. (Henry 2007; Henry 2010, 232, no. 874)

Compiled by: Mary Tunney

Date of upload: 5 November 2013

References

Henry, M. 2010 Ballyhale. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2007: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 232, no. 874. Bray. Wordwell.

Henry, M. 2007 Report on pre-construction archaeological testing at Ballyhale, Co. Kilkenny. Unpublished report submitted to the National Monuments Service, Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Dublin.