The highest roof
in all this souterrain being 5 feet 3, it does not seem likely that the
builders were taller than that; and there seems more reason to believe
that they were much smaller. Another such gallery in Sutherlandshire is
"nowhere more than 4-1/2 feet in height, and for the greater part of its
length only 2 feet wide, expanding to 3-1/2, for about 3 feet only from
the inner end." Still more restricted is the "rath-cave" of Ballyknock,
in the parish of Ballynoe, barony of Kinnatalloon, County Cork. "The
cave is a mere cutting in the clayey subsoil, and is roofed with flags
resting on the clayey banks of the cutting, of which the length is about
100 feet, and the height and width from 3 to 3-1/2 feet, except that the
width to a height of 2 feet is hardly a foot at the N.W. turn, 23 feet
from the N.E. end, and at a point 27 feet from the S.E. end.... Right
below the aperture ... was a short pillar-stone, deeply scored with
Oghams ... [and] many of the roofing slabs were seen ... to be inscribed
with Oghams, some large and others minute."[96]
"This class of structures deserves a careful study," observes Captain
Thomas, referring to the souterrains of the north-west of Scotland;[97]
"for the room or accommodation afforded by this mode of building is
exceedingly small when compared with the labour expended in procuring
it; besides, the doorway or entry is often so contracted that no bulky
object, not even a very stout man, could get in .
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