Souterrain, Tullanacorra, Co. Mayo

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Settlement Sites

Souterrain, Tullanacorra, Co. Mayo

Two long, shallow trenches run across the interior of an early medieval earthwork in Tullanacorra, County Mayo, and between them they hint at something that once lay underground.

Neither depression intersects the other, and neither is much more than half a metre deep, yet together they suggest the outline of a collapsed souterrain, the kind of man-made underground passage or chamber that was built into and around raths across early medieval Ireland, probably for food storage, refuge, or both.

The site sits within a rath, a type of circular earthen enclosure that served as a farmstead during the early medieval period, roughly the fifth to twelfth centuries. One depression runs approximately north to south for around ten metres, extending from the inner scarp of the rath's southern arc toward the centre of the enclosure. A large stone slab protrudes from its base, the kind of feature consistent with the roofing or lining of a souterrain that has since given way. A second depression of similar length runs northeast to southwest a few metres to the west, also beginning at the rath's inner scarp. The two channels follow different alignments and do not meet, which may indicate separate tunnel sections, a branching layout, or simply the differential collapse of a more complex underground structure over many centuries.

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