Underground Ireland

Just saw an article on the journal about two guys seen entering a man hole that leads to the river poddle last night, seemingly there was criminal intentions

Best thread ever, just spent the last hours reading the whole thing! Here's my 2 cents on the topic...

I'd love to visit the Magazine Fort - is it hard to gain entry nowadays?
I'd love to investigate the rail tunnel under the park too but the fact that trains sometimes go through it is enough to scare me off really.

I live not far from St Anne's Park so must take a nosey around and look for tunnel entrances.

Some great places abroad for underground visits are the Paris Catacombs, caving in Budapest (and a whole underground hospital under Gellert Hill) and Capadocia in Turkey which has amazing underground residences & tunnels. I've also been in a very interesting undeground place in Stockholm, we drove deep underground and it went about 8 floors down in a lift, owned by the military but part rented out to telecom companies. That city is full of underground bunkers. In Helsinki I was in an underground bunker that's so large they've a gym and indoor soccer courts in it.

Years ago I followed a tunnel (which was pretty much a drain) in Malahide castle grounds but my candle ran out and I got claustraphobic so I came out through a manhole above, only to find 3 gardeners looking at me in amusement! I think it would have led all the way to the castle (through the 'botanic' gardens area) but has been blocked up since.

People interested in tunnels etc might also like to visit the few banks in Dublin (one on Dame St ; The Mint and others) that have since been converted into pubs and have underground vaults and strong safe doors still in place.

That tunnel in Dalkey from the Loreto mentioned must be interesting but unfortunately it looks like you'd really have to trespass to get close to it. I wonder if it really goes across all the way across under the water.

A bunker was mentioned in Merrion Square - I believe it was all landscaped over - if you enter the square across the road from the Dail and then head to the far right corner you'll find a grassed over area with a suspicious lump to it, I believe that was the bunker.

Re the O'Connell St bunker, I've wondered about those 2 metal objects at the top of the street alright. I'd love to get an endescope or fibre-optic cable to look into them. Can anyone help with that?

Oh here's another one - on the platform at Seapoint DART station, there's some sort of abandoned structure which could be gained access to, it looks like it might go far in under the raised garden above it. Anyone know anything about it?

On the cliff path in Howth at a certain point on the South side of it, little would you realise that there's actually a short tunnel under the path linking someone's garden to a path right down to the beach. This is close to the end of Ceanchor Rd & The Needles if you know the area. Actually while I'm at it, further along the same path towards Sutton there's another tunnel that goes under the main path - it's like a smuggler's tunnel as at one end there's the sea and the other end there's a shallow cave where the last time I visited someone had been living. It's hard to explain where this is exactly but it's about 5 mins walk from the Red Rock martello tower.

The cellar in Dublin Castle is worth a look, it's proper old, really atmospheric, all the old exposed stonework etc.

Anyone know if it's possible to visit those old fort islands off Cork without ending up arrested?

I've also visited a few of the Martello towers on the islands off Dublin. Not underground but certainly dark & scary inside & have narrow winding stairs all the way to the top. While I'm at it, anyone know who Dalkey Island actually belongs to?

Just found some cool pics of Camden Fort in Cork:

http://www.rescuecamden.ie/gallery2/index.htm

Dunno if already said but the crypt at St. Michans church is underground so does that count?

starn wrote: »

Hi,
I'am in the process of writting a piece on hidden Ireland. So far I've visited the CIE tunnell under the Pheonix Park and spent a charming day wondering Dublins sewers. But thats been pretty much it. So Im looking for help uncovering some more hidden gems. I've spent some time in the catacombs underneath both Paris and Rome. While obiously not expecting to find anything like that underneath Dublin. I some there must be more beneath it then just a train tunnell

In Dublin, Christchurch Cathedral has catacombs and do does St,Michan's, I think. Some of the Irish gentry houses had subterannean passages. There is one beneath Cullane House in Clare but it is bricked up now, I think. Watching this thread with interest!