Souterrain, Coolroe, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Souterrain, Coolroe, Co. Kerry

On the lower northern slopes of Knockroe in South Kerry, a low, sod-covered mound sits just south of the Glasheencorgoad stream.

It is easy to walk past without a second glance, but the hut conceals something beneath it: an entrance to a souterrain, an underground stone-built passage or chamber of the kind constructed in early medieval Ireland, typically for storage or refuge. The outer structure is a ruined drystone hut of subcircular plan, roughly 5.5 metres in diameter and less than a metre high at its tallest surviving point, with a possible original entrance in its disturbed south-eastern side. Scattered across the ground nearby are displaced roofing lintels, the flat stones that once formed the ceiling of the passage below, now lying where they fell or were pushed aside at some unknown point.

The souterrain itself opens from within the hut's interior, but flooding has prevented any proper access or investigation, so what lies inside remains essentially unknown. The site has been tentatively identified with a place called Lios Cúláin, a name recorded by Ó Cíobháin in 1978, which suggests some degree of local memory attached to the location even if the details have grown obscure. The name lios, referring in Irish to a ringfort or enclosure, hints at a broader settlement context that the visible remains alone do not fully convey. A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan included the site in their archaeological survey of the Iveragh Peninsula, published by Cork University Press in 1996, which remains the principal record of what little is known here.

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Pete F
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