Souterrain, Cappaclogh, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Souterrain, Cappaclogh, Co. Kerry

Beneath the interior of an ancient stone enclosure on a north-facing Kerry hillside, there is a small underground chamber that has been sealed, partially opened, and sealed again by time.

The site is known as Lios na nGamhan, and what makes it quietly arresting is the accidental nature of its partial rediscovery: the removal of a single roofing slab was enough to reveal the chamber beneath, yet the debris that had accumulated inside made it impossible to enter properly. The chamber sits a little to the west-north-west of centre within a roughly circular cashel, the term for a stone-walled enclosure of early medieval Irish origin, typically built to protect a farmstead or small settlement.

The souterrain itself, an underground stone-built structure associated with early medieval settlements and used variously for storage, refuge, or concealment, consists of an oval chamber measuring 2.5 metres along its longer axis and just over a metre across. Its drystone walls lean inward as they rise, narrowing the space to roughly 85 centimetres where four roof slabs sit approximately 90 centimetres above the current floor level. A 70-centimetre-wide opening in the south-west wall once connected the chamber to a passage leading away to the north-west, but that passage has collapsed and is now blocked after only about a metre. The opening itself is largely filled in, leaving only a narrow gap below the lintel. The cashel and its souterrain occupy a slope overlooking Tralee Bay, and the survey details come from J. Cuppage's 1986 archaeological survey of the Dingle Peninsula, published under the title Corca Dhuibhne.

Access to the souterrain is presently obstructed by the accumulated earth and stone that fills the chamber from below, and the connecting passage beyond the south-west opening is entirely blocked by collapse. What can be seen is the exposed chamber from above, through the gap left by the missing roof slab, giving a sense of the careful corbelled construction without allowing any real entry. The cashel that surrounds it sits on open ground on the slope, its circular form still legible in the landscape.

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