Souterrain, Coarha More, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Settlement Sites
Beneath the fields of Coarha More on the Iveragh Peninsula, Kerry, there may lie a souterrain, a type of underground stone-lined passage or chamber built during the early medieval period, often associated with nearby settlement enclosures and used variously for storage, refuge, or both.
The operative word is "may": this particular structure is known only through local tradition, and its precise condition or even its survival remains unverified.
The souterrain is said to contain a number of chambers and to sit within an enclosure, the kind of circular or oval earthwork that frequently accompanied early Irish farmsteads. That the knowledge of it persists at all is largely due to local memory rather than excavation or formal inspection. The Iveragh Peninsula, stretching westward into the Atlantic in south County Kerry, is dense with early medieval remains, many of them poorly documented, and Coarha More is no exception to that pattern of sparse but suggestive evidence.