Souterrain, Near Elie, Fife, January 2009

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RichardB

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Souterrain is a new word on me. Unsurprisingly it's from the French sous terrain, which simply means under ground.

I was told about this by a friend who found it when he was driving his tractor. He had a look down but didn't go in because he didn't have a torch. It's relatively well known locally among the kind of people who know these things and is marked on the OS map as a souterrain, so that's what I'll call it. If Wikipedia is to be believed it's a lot older than I thought, and certainly older than the access hatch.

This was my first attempt at using the DSLR in the dark, and it shows. After a few tries at light painting I decided to point the torch in the opposite direction and let the camera work with the residual light.

The entrance tunnel. This was very meandering.
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A fully automatic flash shot
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There were a couple of muddy humps like this that could only be crawled over.
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Another corner
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Not stalactites but grass roots, it's not far underground at all.
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Nearly into the main chamber
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There was a lot of carving on the walls, much of it with 19th and early 20th century dates. I don't know if they are genuine, I hope they are.There are still Hasties working on farms around here.
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Half way to comedy gold.
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The way out. I don't seem to have taken any pictures of the whole chamber.
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The entrance/exit was the tightest squeeze. I left the camera bag there partly because I didn't want to carry it in and partly so that anybody looking for me would know I was still in there if the worst happened. Not that it was going to, but you never know.
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Ooh, this is interesting! I haven't come across this name before either, even though I'm into ancient sites. Excellent link with useful info. Nice find. :)
 
There are 44 results for souterrain on Geograph. They appear to be mostly in Scotland and Ireland, but it seems that they exist in Cornwall too so there might be one within your reach :).
 
Interesting stuff, not heard of these before. I'll put this one on the list.
 
Let me know if you want to know how to find it or show you where it is. :)
 
Nice one. I like things like this having done a bit of archaeology in my time. IIRC their supposed to be Iron Age or thereabouts. But from what I recall nobody can quite work out what they're for. Could be an underground storage room, a refuge or a mean of escape. It does probably mean that the entrance is within an old dwelling or at least within a settlement.
 
I've promised to take my children to see it so I'll try and improve on the photos. Having the boys in shot will also give a better impression of the size, it looks a lot bigger in the photos than it really is.
 
Took CB, but not his scaredycat brother, and got a few more pictures.

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The destination
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CB standing still for a 30s exposure. :lol: He's 10 and has ASD, he doesn't DO standing still.
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Finally, my attempt at an arty shot.
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Good shots there. I like visiting the East neuk so will put this on my list when the better weather arrives.TFP.
 

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