Souterrain, Cloghboola More, Co. Cork

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Settlement Sites

Souterrain, Cloghboola More, Co. Cork

Beneath a field in Cloghboola More, a stone-lined underground passage lies completely invisible from the surface.

There is nothing to mark it, no depression in the soil, no tell-tale scatter of loose stones. The ringfort that once enclosed and protected it has itself been levelled, leaving a site that has effectively erased all outward evidence of its own existence.

A souterrain, for those unfamiliar with the term, is a man-made underground chamber or tunnel, typically constructed from dry-stone walling and roofed with large flat stones. They are found across Ireland in association with ringforts, the circular enclosed farmsteads of the early medieval period, and are thought to have served as places of refuge, cool storage, or both. In this case, the ringfort itself is recorded as having been levelled, meaning the earthen bank and ditch that once defined the settlement have been ploughed or cleared away over time, a fate that befell a great many such sites as agricultural land was improved and consolidated. The only documentary trace of the souterrain comes from a 1937 reference by a writer named Broker, who recorded an underground chamber at this location. Beyond that single mention, the site has left almost nothing behind.

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