Souterrain, Reagrellagh, Co. Cork

Co. Cork |

Settlement Sites

Souterrain, Reagrellagh, Co. Cork

Beneath a field in Reagrellagh, mid Cork, there is a souterrain, an underground stone-lined passage or chamber built in early medieval Ireland, typically associated with ringforts and used for storage, refuge, or both.

What makes this particular example notable is precisely how little of it remains visible. The ringfort it once belonged to has been levelled, meaning the circular earthen enclosure that would have defined the settlement above ground has been ploughed or cleared away entirely, leaving the underground passage as the sole surviving trace of whatever community once lived here.

The souterrain was recorded by the Department of Archaeology at University College Cork in March 1984, noted in connection with the now-destroyed ringfort. Beyond that single entry, no further details appear to have been documented: no dimensions, no structural description, no account of whether the passage was intact or partially collapsed. Souterrains of this kind are not uncommon across Munster, where hundreds survive in varying states of preservation, but many, like this one, exist only as brief archival mentions attached to sites that have since disappeared from the landscape. The levelling of the ringfort likely occurred as a result of agricultural improvement, a process that removed countless such monuments across Ireland throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Souterrain, Reagrellagh, Co. Cork. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement