ucd's mystery locations?

ed6hellsfresh · 21-09-2005 1:28pm #1

i've already found the quite nice lake near the vet building, and to be honest the huge dragon flies scared the **** out of me.
just wondering if ucd holds any more mysterious/wonderfull places like this?

beanyb · 21-09-2005 4:42pm

There's underground tunnels somewhere too.

breadmonkey · 21-09-2005 4:43pm

I once found a field with a cow in it!

PiZaRR-0 · 21-09-2005 5:16pm

The tunnells rock!

Hunting around college was savage in first year. Get pissed go wonderin round, mooch around campass for parties.

Slippers · 21-09-2005 7:11pm

I walked around inside part of the perimeter of the campus last week.

I found an abandoned tennis court with weeds growing through the tarmac surface. It still had the net strung up...
I found a strange little house, surrounded by high embankments with concrete facings and with the door slitghtly open.
I found wild tomatoes.
I sat on a wall looking into a field containing eight cows and a row of grave stones.

tribulus · 21-09-2005 7:35pm

you can sleep on top of the lecture theaters, all the heat rises up to you, nice and cosy

tintinr35 · 21-09-2005 8:16pm

beanyb wrote:

There's underground tunnels somewhere too.

yea i heard that too anyone know where tho??

zap · 21-09-2005 9:17pm

yep they are all over the place just look about all the electric cables etc are down there why do you think there is no poles with wires anywhere in Belfield.

Red Alert · 21-09-2005 10:41pm

The steam pipes from the boiler house go through them - which leads me to believe that it may be possible to go right from the Arts block to the clonskeagh gate whilst underground.

Waltons · 21-09-2005 10:51pm

I would like to trek around UCD underground! I must find these passages

the_syco · 21-09-2005 11:19pm

I think the campus was designed around the time of mass student riots around europe so these tunnels probably made sense to the authorities then.

HappyCrackHead · 22-09-2005 1:31am

the_syco wrote:

I think the campus was designed around the time of mass student riots around europe so these tunnels probably made sense to the authorities then.

Yup, i also heard that many of the academic staff still use the tunnels for getting between the lecture theatres/ their offices and the other buildings, specifically Admin.

There are numerous access points, if u have any lectures in the arts building, u will notice the doors at the back of the theatres(or is it front, near the podiums) they lead to the tunnells, you've to go down a bit and you come out in the different stairwells AD BC E JK all that jazz, however from those doors u can also go lower into the riot tunnels.

thats the lore of ucd as i have best been able to compile regarding the tunnells.

(i guess thats another thing we have over Trinity... that... and class...)

Agent Smith · 22-09-2005 1:41am

Intresting, trinity also has Tunnels, house six to the Gmb for example,

irlrobins · 22-09-2005 12:00pm

Slippers wrote:

I sat on a wall looking into a field containing eight cows and a row of grave stones.

thats the convent on Roebuck Rd.

snorlax · 22-09-2005 1:41pm

i think they originally built the tunnels in ucd when the students used to riot and protest during the 70's, it provided a quick way for the authorities to reach the protesters.

also there's no large meeting squares, and the steps up to the student bar/ arts block are specifically designed to make people slow down(it's hard to climb up them really fast), all designed to stop students making trouble and prevent large numbers congregating.

tcd has cellars and tunnels underground which house some really old wine.

arbeitsscheuer · 22-09-2005 2:32pm

snorlax wrote:

i think they originally built the tunnels in ucd when the students used to riot and protest during the 70's, it provided a quick way for the authorities to reach the protesters.

Spot on. Also why everything is spaced out. No obvious place to congregate, as you said. That's why the lake is where it is - specifically placed in an area that would have been perfect for student demonstrations.

P.S. Yeah, trinners has underground tunnels too - and since TCD is older than UCD, that basically means that UCD nicked the idea back in the 60's.
Plus imo Trinity has class, but that's a subjective matter...

upmeath · 25-09-2005 12:23pm

so can anyone tell me exactly where to access these tunnels, a really easy-to-find location where i don't risk being arrested for doing it?
ps has anyone seen the caption on the picture of richview in the student's survival guide? pure class!

irlrobins · 25-09-2005 1:31pm

as far as i know they're all well secured now.

The most obvious one is outside the student centre. The steps that lead down, covered by shutters and grills.

Ed · 25-09-2005 5:39pm

It's extremely unlikely you'll meet anyone who's ever actually been in the tunnels. I've tried to get in both legally and illegally(i didn't try particularly hard on the illegal front, short of some drunken door shoving) and it just wasn't worth the hassle. If you really want to, you just need some bolt cutters.
The tunnels that lecturers use(though they use them rarely) are not "the tunnels" commonly referred to in ucd myths. They're just access tunnels described above and are only useful for smoking, pranks and other activities.
The whole "ucd was designed to be riot proof" is questionable, it's the common myth but the fact is, there is plenty of open spaces for crowds to gather if needs be. Those steps aren't as hard to run up and down as people make out. The most logical explanation as to why ucd looks so weird in certain spots is because they polish guy who designed the area around the arts building was an idiot(not as a big an idiot as the ex-ucd student who gave us the science building, but that's another story).
Student riotting in ireland in the 70's was nowhere near the scale of that in other countries, despite what some politicians romanticising their student days will describe.

Dave! · 25-09-2005 6:18pm

Hey is it true that the lake was built to stop rioting or something? I heard that somewhere, and I guess it gets rid of a big open space to gather in...

Waltons · 25-09-2005 6:45pm

Are you sure you didn't read that about the lake 4 posts above yours?

craiglen · 27-09-2005 7:25pm

Sure why would anyone bother rioting at all?

Maybe there's a tunnel that leads to trinity college i wouldn't rule that out as they were intending to make the two colleges into one there a while back...

That'd be interesting

Stabshauptmann · 28-09-2005 10:02am

Waltons wrote:

Are you sure you didn't read that about the lake 4 posts above yours?

no, he doesnt read full threads

From the looks of things few ppl do.

anonymous_joe · 28-09-2005 1:01pm

Wasn't Kevin Myers involved in some riot in the late 60s? Him and some crazies took over some administration building?

Riamfada · 28-09-2005 1:01pm

DaveMcG wrote:

Hey is it true that the lake was built to stop rioting or something? I heard that somewhere, and I guess it gets rid of a big open space to gather in...

Riot against what? The Crappiness of blackboard?

anonymous_joe · 28-09-2005 1:06pm

Couldn't tell ya, as I wasn't there in the late 60s...
Probably something poltical knowing our Kevin...

wheresthebeef · 28-09-2005 10:43pm

Could full plans of the university including any tunnells be obtained from the Planning Office in Dublin city council, or details of them obtained from the university under Freedom of Information?
Anyone ever look into it?

EI-A320 · 03-10-2005 10:54pm

went round the back of the ag science block today with one my mates and walked down this path and found this large metal door, tried to open it but couldnt and as we were walking back up the path to the main one, services came along in one of their jeeps and just stopped and looked at us, then as we started walking back towards the back of the library building they followed us and then drove off when we walked thru the gap beside the careers office.... very strange.

Waltons · 03-10-2005 11:06pm

Kaptain Redeye wrote:

no, he doesnt read full threads
From the looks of things few ppl do.

Right, I'm not going to bother reading the past 6 pages but here's what I think (Sorry if it's been posted before)

daram · 10-12-2005 8:32pm

i was in the tunnels last night. got in there with a group of mates at about 1.30am. Absolute sweet deal. From inside we found all the entraces/exits. They are as follows:
The one near the number10 bus stop
One in the engineering
One at the front of the restaurant
One in the bushes between arts and admin
One from the corridors behind the lecture theatres in the arts block
One behind the back wall of the "train station" type area underneath the library,
One in front of the science block,
One in front of ag
One in chemistry,
One in front of the student centre
One under the steps of the sports centre
and finally, one near the water tower.

We walked the entrire campus underground. I took rakes of photos too.

Scraggs · 10-12-2005 8:36pm

daram wrote:

I took rakes of photos too.

Do share, pretty please....

ucd's mystery locations?

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