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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Souterrain

Bunduff, County Sligo, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Souterrain, Bunduff, County Sligo, 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
Bunduff
County
Sligo
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Not indicated
Coordinates
54.44668, -8.42997
SMR number
SL003-019002-

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 1881 map "Ireland to Illustrate the Military Condition of the Country." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1881 · Ireland to Illustrate the Military Condition of the Country. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1904 · Sheet 4. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1922 · Ireland - northern section. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Get directions ↗

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

The National Monuments Service's description

Not indicated on any edition of the OS 6-inch map. A souterrain was discovered in 1954 at or in proximity to a possible levelled cashel (SL003-019001-). The monument was visited by an OPW fieldworker in the same year (SMR file). His report reads:'Souterrain of gallery type. Drystone walls. Slab roof. Two chambers accessible. At present entered through roof of chamber broken in removing stones by Co. Council workmen. Chamber 1 (that through which it is now entered) measures approximately 10m feet 6 in. [3.2m] in length (probably longer, slightly curved). Upper courses of side walls corbelled. Height about 5 ft. [1.5m] but original floor level probably lower. Small doorway blocked with earth on either side of chamber 1. Chamber 2 lies in a straight line with chamber 1 and is entered from it by a low passage, through which it is possible to crawl by going flat on one's face. Chamber 2 is of similar construction to chamber 1. Its visible length is about 16 ft. [4.9m], but it is half-filled with a mass of earth and stones sloping down in a sort of ramp from the far end, representing a possible former entrance. Chamber 2 is a little less than 6 ft. [1.8m]in width. Maximum height about 5ft [1.5m] at present. Chamber 2 has an air shaft, a little over 1 ft square, slab-lined, leading towards the surface over the roof of chamber 1. The top of another air-shaft, apparently ventilating the sealed chamber on right of chamber 1 from the present entrance, has been exposed.' In a report to the NMI the fieldworker also recorded 'occupation (burned stones, iron slag, charcoal, burnt stone) on the floor of Chamber 1' (NMI topographical file). In 1962 a fragment of a decorated rotary quern (SL003-019003-), now in the National Museum, was recovered from the souterrain (Lucas 1964, 98-100). No trace of the souterrain is now visible at ground level.

Compiled by: Patrick F. O'Donovan

Date of upload: 21 April 2011

References

Lucas A.T. 1964 N.M.I. -Archaeological acquisitions in 1962. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 94, 85-104.

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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