Underground tunnels under Trinity

John Doe1

Apparently there are secret tunnels under the college somewhere, anyone know anything about it?

Jonathan

Mainly under Front Square and the west end of the college.

Maybe_Memories

Jonathan wrote: »

Mainly under Front Square and the west end of the college.

Any way to access them??

Does Trinity have like a Marauder's Map or something? :P

languagenerd

John Doe1 wrote: »

Apparently there are secret tunnels under the college somewhere, anyone know anything about it?

They're not really secret, you're just not allowed in them. I've heard that sometimes the SU store stuff in them so offer to help out at things if you wanna go in. I think you can see the entrance to one under the Chapel, beside the Buttery ATM.

Supposedly there is/was one linking TCD with RSCI (up the top of Grafton St) that they used during the Rising to transport ammunition.

bscm

...I'm waiting to see if some epic Trinity Ball story crops up here

tricky D

Some info here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055395075

MrPain

From Trinity News 21 April 1999:

Going Underground



By Claire Thornhill Did you know that College has the "biggest wine cellar in Europe"? Or that there's a tunnel connecting Trinity with Bank of Ireland, College Green? Were you aware that the Provost has a private walkway running from the his house to 94% of College locations? Or that if you got yourself a shovel and dug a few feet into the rugby pitch,you would come across a musty chamber, perhaps even the very one that houses the porn books issued to College as part of its Copyright Library status?
Sadly, stories of a Trinity underground riddled with tunnels are completely misleading. But while the maze of interconnecting passages extending far into the city centre is pure myth, the ground beneath our feet is not completely devoid of interest.
For a start, all the Houses around Front Square are built on cellars, similar in style to our own dear Buttery. Student access is now denied for safety reasons, but until a fire in Player's rooms under House 3 in 1982, the cellars were used for storage as well as providing a venue for "all kinds of student and other activities" as Jennifer Gill from the Director of Buildings office put it.
There are indeed wine cellars on campus, though unlikely to contain that priceless missing case of 1962 Chateau Rothschilde. The main cellar is located under House 10 and a smaller one is under the Dining Hall steps for convenient proximity to Commons. Unsurprisingly students are denied access to these cellars, although in the early eighties there were a number of cases of students accessing the cellar from upstairs in House 10 and helping themselves to the odd bottle or two. However College authorities soon caught on and quickly put an end to that.
As for the hoards of porn rumoured to be buried somewhere on campus, they simply don't exist. The Copyright status of Trinity allows the library to choose the books that it receives. So put away your shovels and get back to saving up for that trip to Amsterdam.
The attentive student may have noticed that after the recent spot of wintry April weather, snow on a certain strip of cobblestones in Front Square melted before anywhere else. This is due to a large heating duct running between the Examination Hall and the Chapel. Even more exciting is the tunnel which links the 1937 Reading Room, to the Old Library, to the Berkeley. Only library staff have access to these passages but the rest of us can climb down (a few thousand steps) to the subterranean walkway which links the Berkely to the Lecky. What makes this tunnel notorious, as freshers are told each year on their tour, is that late one evening a few years ago, two students, failing to notice the security camera, attempted to use the isolated spot for a bit of nooky.
There is a possibility that the LUAS Light Rail System, due to run underground from Stephens Green to Broadstone, might be going under Trinity. While not entirely ruling this out, a spokesperson for Luas said that this was highly unlikely. The route will be decided once test drilling, due to commence this summer, has been completed.
While the ground beneath TCD might not live up to its reputation for secret tunnels, what we do have under our feet is a whole lot of bones. Not only may we be walking over the remains of cadavers from the Anatomy schools in the early 1800s, but those treading carelessly across Library Square should perhaps note that a medieval graveyard also lies somewhere below them. In 1593, Trinity, in its first incarnation, was built on the site of the old Augustinian monastery of All Hallows. Most of the monastery was pulled down, but the graveyard remained and was inadvertently stumbled upon when College were working on a water pipe in the vicinity of the Campanile last year.
So for those with an interest in the subterranean, the lack of tunnels is no doubt disappointing. But if engineers can stumble across twenty bodies and a camel bone during a routine survey as they did a few weeks ago, Trinity's underground heritage will no doubt show its self to be more exciting than a couple of wine cellars, a few library tunnels and a heating duct.

http://web.archive.org/web/20000301073225/http://www.tcd.ie/Student/Publications/tn/21-apr-99/tnfeat5.htm

Amirani

It's rumored that there's tunnels linking our "Sphere Within Sphere" sculpture to others around the world.

The mystery continues...

John Doe1

niallsparky wrote: »

It's rumored that there's tunnels linking our "Sphere Within Sphere" sculpture to others around the world.

The mystery continues...

I BELIEVE:eek:

many

John Doe1 wrote: »

I BELIEVE:eek:

hahahahaha

Degsy

Not only may we be walking over the remains of cadavers from the Anatomy schools in the early 1800s,

http://www.excavations.ie/Pages/Details.php?Year=&County=Dublin&id=7931

http://www.excavations.ie/Pages/Details.php?Year=&County=Dublin&id=230

yutta

There's an entrance opposite AAP -- metal door on the back of New Square North.

There's also an entrance under the kitchen of (I think) No. 39 or No. 40. I heard you can pull back the lino and low and behold... But they've been renovated now, so things might be different.

Apparently the Knights of the Campanile have their initiation ceremonies in a special cavern under Front Square.

If you get to know the porters, they'll fill you in on the exact details.

There's also a door into the campanile - in the south-west buttress facing Rubrics. They open it during Trinity Ball as there's a power socket in there. Sometimes you can sneak in when they're using the socket. Don't forget to pull the rope when you're in there! BONG!

Degsy

yutta wrote: »

If you get to know the porters, they'll fill you in on the exact details.

They'll fill you in alright if you call them porters:p

Denerick

Apparantly there's a secret SU freemasons lodge down there that conspires with other Student unions across Europe.

oppenheimer1

UCD has a far more extensive network of service tunnels.



Image from the UCD Forum

brownacid

oppenheimer1 wrote: »

UCD has a far more extensive network of service tunnels.

I was talking about this with my brother a bout a month ago, he was saying that when UCD was built back in the 70's there was a lot of student protests happening in France and UK. Apparently the designers felt that by putting in a large tunnel system underground the guards could pop up anywhere on campus to control the crowd.
Regardless of who has more tunnels the fact remains that a subterranean network of tunnels is cool

John Doe1

Denerick wrote: »

Apparantly there's a secret SU freemasons lodge down there that conspires with other Student unions across Europe.

Your ip address has been stored and a group of secret service agents will be at your door momentarily