Souterrain, Crumlin, Co. Clare

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Settlement Sites

Souterrain, Crumlin, Co. Clare

About thirty metres west of the old church at Crumlin, in what was described as recently as 1980 as an overgrown field across the lane, an underground structure sits largely out of sight on a sheltered terrace at the foot of a rocky, stepped slope.

From this position the Aran Islands are visible out to the west across the water, which makes it all the more striking that whoever built this place chose to disappear beneath the ground rather than make use of the view. The entry point today is a hole in the roof of a small conical chamber, roughly two and a half metres across, its floor now a jumble of rubble.

The structure below is a souterrain, a type of man-made underground passage built in early medieval Ireland, typically of drystone construction and associated with nearby settlements or enclosures. Their precise function is still debated, though storage, refuge, and the keeping of dairy produce in cool conditions are all proposed uses. This example is L-shaped and notably well preserved. From the conical entry chamber, a creep, a deliberately tight rectangular opening just sixty centimetres high and forty-five wide, forces anyone entering to go low before gaining access to the main passage. That passage runs roughly south-southeast for nine and a half metres, where earth has accumulated on the floor, before turning westward for a further four metres. The overall dimensions are modest but the geometry is deliberate, and the constriction of the creep would have made the interior easily defensible against anyone trying to force their way in.

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Pete F
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