Dublin Castle Tunnel found

Dublin Castle Tunnel found

2 Feb 1961

DOES some of Dublin’s heaviest traffic run across a seven-foot high tunnel only a few feet beneath the road surface? This startling question is being asked following the discovery of a section of “forgotten” tunnel in the Upper Yard of Dublin Castle.

Workmen probing for rock level just inside the Cork Hill entrance to the Castle this week came across the tunnel at a depth of only about two feet. It was about seven feet high, nine feet wide and bricked up at each end. The tunnel was roofed over with brick and a gas main had been laid over it without it being discovered. Mr. L. Miller, of Cementation Co. (Ireland), Ltd., where employees found the “lost tunnel,” told an IRISH PRESS reporter: ” I’m told that, when Cork Hill was being resurfaced, bricks like those roofing the tunnel were found under the setts, so it is quite likely that it runs right across the street.”

He added: “I believe that a number of such tunnels have been found in the past, like this one, unmarked on Castle plans. There is’ a theory that, at one time, the Castle was surrounded by a moat supplied from the underground River Poddle. Perhaps this tunnel was part of the exit for the water.”

Engineers probe

Board of Works engineers are to investigate the surface oi the Dublin Castle yards to see if the uncovered tunnel is an isolated instance or one of a series, perhaps linking with forgotten dungeons and vaults. Traffic passes over the tunnel area and workmen have filled it in. A spokesman for C.I.E., which daily runs dozens of buses along Cork Hill, said: “The road surface has been surfaced and resurfaced countless times in the past and no tunnel has ever been, found. I am sure that, at some time, Corporation engineers would have come across it; when the street was made, its foundations must have been probed. In any case, if there was such a tunnel, surely it would have caved in long ago.” Vindication note: The most puzzling aspect of the tunnel find was the presence of five tons of the best coal. Then older Castle employees recalled that, some years ago, a coal company employee found himself in trouble when a load of coal he was to deliver was missing. The man claimed he had dumped it down a coal-hole and, at that time, there must have been a manhole leading to the tunnel, which he mistook for the coal cellar.

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