Souterrain, Lyranes, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Settlement Sites

Souterrain, Lyranes, Co. Kerry

In elevated pasture just east of the Caragh river in County Kerry, there is an archaeological site that offers nothing whatsoever to look at.

No depression in the ground, no exposed stonework, no marker of any kind. What remains is purely a matter of local memory: the land here is reputed to conceal a souterrain, and that reputation is, at present, the only evidence available.

A souterrain is an underground passage or chamber, typically constructed from dry-stone walling and roofed with large flat slabs, built during the early medieval period in Ireland as a place of refuge, cold storage, or concealment. Hundreds survive across the country, often discovered by accident when a field is ploughed or when livestock break through a hidden roof. The one at Lyranes belongs to a different category: recorded in the archaeological survey of the Iveragh Peninsula compiled by A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan, it was noted as a local tradition rather than a confirmed structure, with no visible surface trace surviving at the time of survey. Whether it was robbed out for building material, collapsed inward without leaving a mark, or simply never existed in the form the tradition describes, the record does not say.

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Pete F
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