Souterrain, Curranashingane, Co. Cork

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Settlement Sites

Souterrain, Curranashingane, Co. Cork

Beneath the rolling pasture of Curranashingane in West Cork lies a chamber that gives nothing away from the surface.

There is no mound, no depression, no marker of any kind. The only reason anyone knows it exists is that a fence post met something unexpected in 1978, when a field boundary was being removed and the ground opened up beneath it.

What the disturbance revealed was a souterrain, a type of underground passage or chamber built during the early medieval period in Ireland, typically associated with nearby settlement and used variously for storage, refuge, or concealment. This particular example is earth-cut rather than stone-lined, forming a single chamber reported to be around ten feet deep. It was not excavated in any formal sense; the dimensions come from local information gathered at the time of discovery. What gives the site an added layer of interest is its company: a second souterrain lies roughly 180 metres to the north-west, suggesting that this quiet corner of Cork was once rather more occupied than its current appearance implies. Two souterrains in such proximity would typically point to nearby habitation, though no surface trace of any associated settlement has been recorded here either.

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Pete F
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