Souterrain, Glansillagh, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Settlement Sites

Souterrain, Glansillagh, Co. Kerry

In a field of slightly undulating pastureland in north Kerry, two small rectangular depressions in the ground are all that visibly remains of what may once have been an underground passage.

Measuring roughly two metres by one and a half metres each, these slight hollows in the southwest sector of an ancient enclosure are thought to indicate a collapsed souterrain, an underground stone-lined tunnel or chamber typically built during the early medieval period to serve as a place of refuge, food storage, or concealment. Easy to walk past without a second glance, they are the kind of detail that rewards a careful eye.

The depressions sit within a univallate rath, a type of enclosed farmstead common throughout early medieval Ireland, consisting of a roughly circular area defined by a single earthen bank. Faint traces of an exterior fosse, the ditch dug to provide material for the bank and to reinforce the boundary, are still discernible along the northern to western arc of the enclosure. The site commands a good view in all directions across the surrounding countryside, which was likely a deliberate consideration for whoever established the settlement here. Adding further interest to the immediate landscape, a standing stone lies to the northeast of the rath, the two monuments together suggesting this corner of Kerry was a place of some significance across a long span of human activity.

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Pete F
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