Underground Ireland

Clare Bear

brianthebard wrote:

What about the ailwee caves, too touristy?

I was there in August, never even knew the place existed or knew a thing about the bears....really interesting. So I was in a Clare Bear cave....yeah wasn't funny at the time either....

Anyway keep talking people, I love this sort of stuff!

blindman

http://www.archiseek.com/content/showthread.php?t=514
Worth a look here, they have a few years head start.

Victor

beans wrote:

Does anyone have any links to photos from inside the Magazine Fort in the Phoenix Park, or any information on the fort itself? Anyone ever been inside?

I would love to have a nosey around in there.

It looks quite delapidated and dangerous, but no doubt theres attraction in that.

Sewer under Mayor Street Lower.

beans

It's situation on top of the hill always lead me to imagine there were catacomb-type tunnels under the fort itself. Don't have any evidence to back this up, and Google is coming up blank.

Fighting Irish

120_Minutes wrote:

I read all 11 effing pages of that and got no closure! what happened to ted???

welcome in the internet

looksee

There are old copper mines near Bunmahan in county waterford, they are accessible but not many people get to go down.
There is supposed to be a link between the Dunmore caves near Kilkenny city and Kilkenny castle but not much evidence that it exists, it seems unlikely.
Like several other places the whole area under the high street in Kilkenny is pretty much hollow, presumably with cellars.
There is a tunnel on the way in to Swiss Cottage Co Tipperary, used by servants going to and fro the house so not to spoil the scenery.

fiacha

beans wrote:

It's situation on top of the hill always lead me to imagine there were catacomb-type tunnels under the fort itself. Don't have any evidence to back this up, and Google is coming up blank.

there are plenty of drains / culverts running through the Park. I don't know how safe / accessible they are, but there are plenty of man-holes around the place. There are two fairly obviously ones on the hillside above the pond in the Furrey Glen. Was never tempted to take a look as they always stink of man manure. their general locations are here http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=53.359856,-6.350162&spn=0.002171,0.004935&t=h&z=18&om=1&msid=116873374344253362587.00043ba871288829ea1b8

the Fort itself seems to get a fair few dodgy looking visitors, so i've never gone into it. I think it also gets used for parties from time to time. I'd say you'd be safer going in as a group. i've not been around there for a while, but the gates were always hanging open.

info posted for reference only, i strongly suggest that you do NOT attempt to explore any of these features. and don't come crying to me if you get hurt.

beans

the Fort itself seems to get a fair few dodgy looking visitors

Heard it was being used as a shooting gallery / junk shop. Haven't seen any evidence of this during my explorations, but that may be all on the inside, which leads me to believe there's an easy way in. The gate looked fairly closed last I checked, but I didn't really look closely.

All will become clear

BaconZombie

Does anybody know the law on who owns manhole covers?
I've heard stories of them been missing in the middle of a road and the company saying it was the Dublin corps problem and Dublin corp saying it was the companys?

So who owns manholes and public land and who owns the tunnels due to even if you own the land you only own the top few feet of the ground under it?

weemcd

id check courthouses located near prisons, i hear its not uncommon to have tunnels leading from below the jail to the courthouse for security reasons, urban legend has it theres one here (co armagh) leading from the courthouse to the womens prison.

/edit id imagine some garda stations/old army posts would have large sections of underground tunnels, could be very tricky to get access too though.

Victor

BOFH_139 wrote:

Does anybody know the law on who owns manhole covers?

I've heard stories of them been missing in the middle of a road and the company saying it was the Dublin corps problem and Dublin corp saying it was the companys?

So who owns manholes and public land and who owns the tunnels due to even if you own the land you only own the top few feet of the ground under it?

Often, it is adjacent landowners that own the land. The council has possession of the land and has responsibilities for maintaining the road. The council licences use of part of the land to utility providers to provide services.

Typically, the utility is responsible for the entire manhole and its maintainence. they will do their damndest to deny this.

gurramok

Spotted this underground passage for our little friends

Doolittle51

I'm not sure if anyone has pointed this out before. The attachment shows the entrance/exit of the railway tunnel under the phoenix park.

gurramok

Nice pick Doolittle51, never knew exactly where the thing was.

Guess many have walked/cycled/drove across that way not knowing what was underneath them!

Does it follow the path towards that busy roundabout near the tea rooms or does it follow a straight line like from A to B?

Latchy

There is apperently an underground connection of some sort between Collins Bks on the quays across the liffey to the Guinness brewry .Apperently the story goes that it was to be used in by the army case ireland was invaded by either th british or the Nazis ? ,although i am sure their is an even bigger explanation for its construction and use lol .Perhaps sombody might be able to expand on this ?

SarahMc

andrew wrote:

In St. Annes park theres a tunnel from where the house used to be to the park depot (the old servents' house) so that the Guinness family didn't have to see the servents. It's not open at the moment, so i doubt you'd be able to get into it. I think there are plans for refurbishment though.

QUOTE]

I think that is fairly common in old castles. I know Kilkenny castle has a tunnel so the masters never had to see the servants.

Doolittle51

gurramok wrote:

Nice pick Doolittle51, never knew exactly where the thing was.

Guess many have walked/cycled/drove across that way not knowing what was underneath them!

Does it follow the path towards that busy roundabout near the tea rooms or does it follow a straight line like from A to B?

I only copped on where it was the other day. I drive over it every day on the way to work! Have a look on google maps. It shows the path of the tunnel - it goes very close to the roundabout!

mikemac

weemcd wrote:

id check courthouses located near prisons, i hear its not uncommon to have tunnels leading from below the jail to the courthouse for security reasons, urban legend has it theres one here (co armagh) leading from the courthouse to the womens prison.

One in Nenagh leading from the prison to the Courthouse. It's not a big distance, maybe 400 metres or so

dame

SarahMc wrote:

andrew wrote:

In St. Annes park theres a tunnel from where the house used to be to the park depot (the old servents' house) so that the Guinness family didn't have to see the servents. It's not open at the moment, so i doubt you'd be able to get into it. I think there are plans for refurbishment though.

QUOTE]

I think that is fairly common in old castles. I know Kilkenny castle has a tunnel so the masters never had to see the servants.

Yes, it's common, Strokestown House has one too.

eoin5

The Burren has loads of interesting caves worth a mention.

jimi_t

Great thread.

One other place worth mentioning might be the LUAS works in Ranelagh - a lot of it was built over the original tram lines and there's almost certain to be something of interest there. I went looking around Ranelagh Park (there was an old convent there as well) but all thats around is an ESB sub-station. A better place to start might be the old railway bridge up near Elmwood Ave.

Rathmines seems a very likely location as well with the Barracks, St. Marys and various churches around. Anyone know of any sites in Ranelagh/Rathmines?

Victor

:rolleyes:

Susannahmia

Ballyfin House near Portlaoise is rumoured to have a few underground passages

Jello

last_orders wrote:

theres an underground stream going from terenure college lake that goes to bushy park joining up with the waterfall, dunno how accessible it is though. on either end it looks walkable like a sewer but its fairly long so in the middle it might be a natural tunnel.

Yeah, I'm in Terenure College and there's often talk about that. There's a pretty big opening a both ends allright, but nobody's ever had the balls to go through it.

admiralofthefleet

just read this on archiseek:


Last Monday at a workshop regarding future development of DIT at the Grangegorman site, I discovered that a tunnel underneath Rathdown Road linking Grangegorman with the Broadstone side exists although it's no longer in use.
Also, while we're at it, has anybody ever heard of an extension that branches off from the tunnel that runs beneath the Phoenix Park and terminates at Áras an Uachtaráin? A small emergency platform. I don't believe it and can't remember where I heard it. It's a groovy rumour though.



maybe victor could shed some light on this?

Victor

admiralofthefleet wrote: »

Last Monday at a workshop regarding future development of DIT at the Grangegorman site, I discovered that a tunnel underneath Rathdown Road linking Grangegorman with the Broadstone side exists although it's no longer in use.

I suspect this is either a really short tunnel the across the road or a brick arched sewer.

Also, while we're at it, has anybody ever heard of an extension that branches off from the tunnel that runs beneath the Phoenix Park and terminates at Áras an Uachtaráin? A small emergency platform. I don't believe it and can't remember where I heard it. It's a groovy rumour though.

I somehow doubt it. There is the Phoenix Park Tunnel which passes approximately under the Wellington Monument and along the eastern bounday of the barracks. There may or may not have been a platform at some stage for the barracks.

Einstein

i know theres some tunnels in temple bar. I used to record in sun studios on crowe st. on a regular basis and there were tunnels there that the students and engineers well knew about. seemingly quite spooky too...

Victor

Sewers. Sewers. Sewers. Sewers. SEWERS! SEWERS!

Realise how high the Liffey is there when it is high tide.

Fremen

...just watch out for C.H.U.Ds

Deliverance

Little island in Cork by the sea is riddled with tunnels, a housing estate built there, lost two houses due to the sinking of the houses into the ground. For a while the underground erosion caused a heavy truck which was parked to sink into the road, for awhile we as kids observed strange little anommally type holes appearing at random in the road which we dropped pebbles into and had to wait a long time before hearing the splash or hit if any.

Anyway a rumour started (I heard) that the old IRA used to use these tunnels to travel covertly from the island which is on the river, right into the english army camps (billets) which are now factorys (Biocel) etc which are right across from the 'devils hole'. It sounds plausible.

As kids we were the most knowledgeable about the geology of the island due to our exploration of every corner and part of the island we discovered a cave on the far side covered by woods and trees and we nicknamed it the 'devils hole' none of us ever went into it but it looks like a geologists dream. I wonder if anyone actually explored this little gem to see if the rumours were true. If they are true then it is definately a contribution worth investigating for 'underground Ireland' i.e. if the cave does actually lead out into the english camp then I'd imagine the rumour is more than plausible.

Saying that at the time as a kid I wondered about a lot and there was an open door on one of the billets that I mentioned, I wondered in there and found a big collection of old toys belonging to some kid presumably an adult at the time and yet discarded into oblivion due to grown upness. I spent half my day playing with his toy soldiers and army men by myself in this little oasis. I went back there a few times to play with these toys discretely and respecfully (I always put them back the way I found them). It was nice and it was fun. Childhood is / was great.