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Other tunnels are products of an excessive desire for personal privacy, such as at [[Welbeck Abbey]] and Brownlow Castle. Smugglers at times avoided the excise man through what are often simply just drains, sewers or water supply conduits. Some genuine smugglers' tunnels do seem to exist however.<ref name="Hayle">[http://www.cornwall-calling.co.uk/smugglers.htm Hayle, Kernow / Cornwall}</ref>
Other tunnels are products of an excessive desire for personal privacy, such as at [[Welbeck Abbey]] and Brownlow Castle. Smugglers at times avoided the excise man through what are often simply just drains, sewers or water supply conduits. Some genuine smugglers' tunnels do seem to exist however.<ref name="Hayle">[http://www.cornwall-calling.co.uk/smugglers.htm Hayle, Kernow / Cornwall}</ref>

Many legends are associated with the actual and supposed avctivities of the [[Knights Templar]] and this is a rich vein of stories about tunnels connecting together their various properties.<ref name=Tunnels">[http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=R53cdDOMrckC&pg=PA39&lpg=PA39&dq=smugglers%27+tunnel&source=web&ots=MbYdTKTou8&sig=IE0ond-QWzkr6M0_QokxPzhOhks&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result#PPA39,M1 Castle Mysteries.]</ref>
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===The ley line connection===
===The ley line connection===

Revision as of 15:15, 18 September 2008

Ley tunnels are a common element of the local folklore tradition in the United Kingom and they also occur in Europe. Tunnel myths link together such prominent places as country houses, castles, churches, ancient monuments and other, often medieval, buildings. This class of legend takes the form of usually improbably long tunnels, sometimes running under major obstacle such as rivers and lakes to reach their destinations. Religious buildings, monks and the landed gentry are a particularly common element in many of the ley tunnel stories. It is unlikely that most of the recorded ley tunnels actually exist; their significance lies in why so many similar legends have arisen.

Tunnel types

These subterranean passages are sometimes classed as escape tunnels, used to allow the escape of the 'lord and his family' when a castle or mansion house is under seige, etc.[1] Another tunnel type allows for the supposed free and secret movement of monks and other ecclesiatics.[2]

The origins of secret passage myths

One of the entrances to the Cleeve Cove cave system in Scotland.
Inside the main chamber of Halliggye Fogou, Trelowarren, Cornwall

Underground structures have a fascination due to their being hidden from view and their contents, purpose, extent and destinations remaining unkown. Over the centuries many underground structures have been discovered by chance, ranging from Cornish Fougous, souterrains that are possibly Pictish, Roman and medieval sewers to 'smugglers' tunnels', and the like. On occasion the passages will prove to be of a purely natural origin, such as at Cleeves Cove cave in Scotland, or Kent's Cavern in England. The site at Cleeves Cove cave was previously known as the 'Elfhouse' or 'Elfhame'[3] the locals at that time believing that elves had made it their abode.[4][5]

Some castles did have escape tunnels, such as the short one located at Loudoun Castle in Ayrshire, Scotland, which leads from the old kitchens to a 'tunnel-like' bridge over a burn. Others were longer: at Nottingham Castle, the young king Edward III was imprisoned by Roger de Mortimer, 1st Earl of March. In 1330 a small group of armed supporters of Edward III used a secret passage to attack Mortimer. The attackers entered through a long, winding secret passage which led directly into the castle, allowing them to surprise and capture Mortimer.[6]

Other tunnels are products of an excessive desire for personal privacy, such as at Welbeck Abbey and Brownlow Castle. Smugglers at times avoided the excise man through what are often simply just drains, sewers or water supply conduits. Some genuine smugglers' tunnels do seem to exist however.[7]

Many legends are associated with the actual and supposed avctivities of the Knights Templar and this is a rich vein of stories about tunnels connecting together their various properties.[8]

The ley line connection

It has been suggested that an ancient ley line system did once exist and may not have been totally lost from folk memory, in that ley lines may be perpetuated in legends and rumours of secret passages or ley tunnels running for considerable and unlikely distances underneath the countryside between prominent features of the landscape.[9] Alfred Watkins, in The Old Straight Track, suggests that they might be connected with leys. Michael Behrend in The Landscape Geometry of Southern Britain states that the tunnel in Cambridge linking Kings College Chapel to Granchester Manor is a ley.[10]

Ley tunnel examples

Scotland

Ravenscraig Castle in Scotland.

A tunnel is said to run from near Ravenscraig Castle down to the Annick Water just up stream of Lainshaw Castle.

Caldwell House circa 1910.[11]

The tunnel was crawled through by the grandfather of a local man[12]. This tunnel may be related to the drainage of the nearby, flooded Hillhouse quarry, the Water Plantation area and other Lainshaw estate lands.

A tunnel is said to run from Loudoun Castle under the River Irvine to Cessnock Castle in Galston in East Ayrshire, Scotland.[13]

A local tradition was that an underground passage ran from Caldwell House to the old Lugton Inn (now demolished), under the Lugton Water. A search by owners in the cellars did not revealed any signs of a hidden passage.[14]

Persistent rumours exist of a tunnel which is said to from Kilwinning Abbey, under the 'Bean Yaird', below the 'Easter Chaumers' and the 'Leddy firs', and then underneath the River Garnock and on to Eglinton Castle. No evidence exists for it, although it may be related to the underground burial vault of the Montgomeries which does exist under the old abbey[2]

In the village of Carmunnock near Glasgow a tunnel is said to have connected the parish church with dwellings used by the monks on what is now Busby Road. No sign of the tunnel has yet been found.[15]

Ireland

In Lurgan a tunnel supposedly went frm Brownlow house to the police station, courthouse and church in the middle of the town. Another tunnel was from Soyes Mill to Lurgan Castle. One explanantion for the Brownlow tunnel was that Lord Brownlow had a very over protective wife, and after many years of a good marriage, things went sour, so Brownlow had this Tunnel dug so he would be able to exit the castle after dark without his wife finding out ! Once out, he would go on the hunt for some Lurgan lassies, Book a room at the Ashburn Hotel, then leave early in the morning to get back in time for breakfast at the castle with the wife.[16]

England

Glastonbury Tor.

A series of tunnels are said to lie beneath Glastonbury Tor. The most famous tale is about a tunnel from Glastonbury Abbey to the Tor. At one time some thirty monks are rumoured to have entered the Tor via this tunnel, but only three came out again, two insane and one struck dumb.[17] Another legend which is widely believed is that of the long-distance tunnel leading from the crypt of the Lady (or Galilee) Chapel, under the River Brue to a distant point, possibly to the village of Street, where a passage exists from an outlying building in the grounds of the old manor house. A dog is said to have been put into the tunnel at Street and found his way out at the Glastonbury end.[10]

A tunnel is said to run from King’s College Chapel to Granchester Manor, Cambridge, passing under the river Cam.[10]

A tunnel is said to run from Newbury Town Hall to St Nicolas Church. This belief may have started because there are east west flowing brick victorian service tunnels running from roughly the Newbury arcade towards this church; these were exposed to the public's gaze during construction work. A tunnel is also said to run from Newbury Castle (400ft above sea level) and Shaw House (260ft, thus 140 ft below it). The point of entry is said to be hollow space (now blocked) in the south-east angle of the enclosure. In 1930 workmen investigated the legend by excavations of the entrance, but found nothing.[18]

At Necton in East Anglia a tunnel is said to run from the restored 14th century church of All Saints to Necton Hall, in possession of the Mason family since the time of Henry VII.[1]

Gisborough Priory.

The first of a number of legendary tunnels under Norwich leads from the Castle (TM232085) to the Guildhall (TM231085) near the market-place, erected 1407 - 13 on the site of the old tollhouse. It still has a 14th century vault below it, that was the crypt (and prison) of the former building. A second tunnel (in which a pig was once lost) heads from the Castle for Carrow Priory (TM242073 area), a Benedictine nunnery whose scant 12th century remains on the outskirts of Norwich are incorporated into a residence of the Colman family, near the junction of King Street and Bracondale. The third tunnel from the Castle ran to the Norman cathedral to the north-east (TM235089), begun in 1096 by Bishop Herbert de Losinga, and finally consecrated in 1101 - 2. Yet another subterranean way links the Castle with the Crown Derby near the Guildhall.[1]

The interior of Norwich Cathedral - the Nave.

At Norwich Cathedral another tunnel begins, running for about nine miles to the ruins of St. Benet's Abbey (TG383157) on the marshes at Ludham. A much shorter one, allegedly used by monks, was said to run from the cathedral to Samson & Hercules House. The Anglia Restaurant in Prince's Street has a splendid groined crypt for a cellar, and two tunnels from here are said to lead to the cathedral, and to St. Andrew's Hall. Monks supposedly used a tunnel from the cellars of the Shrub House at the corner of Charing Cross Street, to the site of St. Benedict's Gates.[1]

In early January 1644, Cromwell sent his forces to Norwich to demand the surrender of a small group of Royalists, whom he heard to be presently at the Maid's Head Hotel. According to legend, as the Parliamentarians entered the hotel, the Royalists retreated through a secret tunnel, stretching steel ropes across the way behind them. Many of Cromwell's men (and their horses) were beheaded as they raced through the tunnel in pursuit, and this incident is used to explain the sound of ghostly hoofbeats often heard emanating from under the ground around the Cathedral Close.[19][1]

A postern at Northampton Castle.

One smugglers' tunnel was rumoured to run from Kinson, now a Bournemouth suburb, to the coast some four miles away.[20]

In the 19th century, it was said that an underground passage ran from the remains of the 12th century Gisborough Priory, immediately south of Guisborough parish church, to a field that lay in the parish of Tocketts. Halfway along was said to be a chest of gold guarded by a raven or crow.[21] In Cleveland almost every old castle and ruined monastery has its legend of a subterranean passage leading therefrom, which someone has penetrated to a certain distance, and has seen an iron chest, supposed to be full of gold, on which was perched a raven. The raven may suggest a Scandinavian origin of the legends.[22]

Bracknell's Old Manor is a beautiful 17th century brick manor house complete with priest hole. It is said to have secret passages connecting to various locations.[23]

Droitwich Spa is said to have a passageway that leads from St Augustine’s church, Dodderhill, to Friar Street in the town centre. A system of tunnels is said to run from there to St Augustine’s and St Andrew’s churches.[24]

The story that Thomas a Becket from Northampton Castle is a well documented part of 12th century history but how the persecuted Archbishop of Canterbury managed to flee from the fortress remains a mystery. One myth is that he fled from the clutches of Henry II through a tunnel that linked the castle to All Saints Church in Mercers Row.[25]

Denmark

In the city of Aalborg a tunnel is said to have run from the convent under the fjord to another convent near Sundby. This tunnel had branches which ran to an old bridge, two churches and to the castle of Aalborghuus. A student once tried to explore the tunnels with a long cord, a sword and a light. The broken cord was retrieved, but the student was never seen again. [26]

The Ukraine

A mysterious tunnel is said to run to Kniazh Hill that was used during emergencies by the Semashko princes and the other owners of Gubkiv castle, the powerful princes Danylovych. This tunnel, it is said, starts near the deep well in the castle yard.[27]

Subterranean passages

Ley tunnels differ from secret passages and the like in that they are very long, however many examples of extensive underground passages do exist, built for a variety of purposes.

Drains, sewers and water supplies

Prague Castle has many subterranean passages. In the Middle Ages underground passages were dug out mainly for purposes of defence. Later drainage conduits sufficed to take the waste waters to the foot of the castle wall and then let it fall freely over the slope of the bare cliff face into the bed of the Brusnice stream. The inhabitants of the Castle complained of the smell of the slope, so two conduits were built as far as the Brusnice stream. One leads from Hradcany Square and the other, known as the castle passage, from the second Castle courtyard to the bottom of the Deer Moat.[28]

At Paisley Abbey in Scotland, few of the original monastic buildings survived into the twentieth century, so landscaping of the area around the church in 1990 provided the ideal opportunity to investigate the positions of those now "lost". The main drain, which would have brought fresh water into the complex, and taken away the effluents, would have acted as the spinal column of the buildings. Local knowledge led to the rediscovery of a substantial medieval drain with fine stonework and enough space for a person to walk through.[29]

In Exeter, South Devon, medieval tunnels dating from 14th century under the High Street are a unique ancient monument. The tunnels were built to house the pipes that brought fresh water to the city. These Underground Passages have long exercised a fascination over local people, bringing stories of buried treasure, secret escape routes, passages for nuns and priests - even a ghost on a bicycle. Their purpose was simple: to bring clean drinking water from natural springs in fields lying outside the walled city, through lead pipes into the heart of the city.[30]

Seige mines or tunnels

At St Andrew's in Scotland Cardinal Beaton in March 1546, had the Protestant preacher, George Wishart, burnt at the stake in front of his castle walls. This was subsequently used as a pretext for Beaton's grisly murder at the hands of local Protestant lairds who captured the castle by stealth. A long siege followed on the orders of the Regent, the Earl of Arran. By November 1546 this had resulted in a stalemate. A determined effort to undermine the walls of the castle via a spacious tunnel large enough to take pack animals was intercepted, after several false starts, by the defenders. They dug a low, narrow and twisting countermine through the rock that eventually broke into the mine itself.ref name="Saint Andrew's">St Andrews Tunnel</ref>

Escape tunnels

According to local tradition, an escape tunnel running from Maynooth Castle has its exit at the tower in Laraghbryan.[31]

Smugglers' tunnels

Virtually every village within five miles of the Southern coast of England is said to have a smugglers' tunnel. Almost always the entrances to the tunnels have been lost or bricked up. Some tunnel stories turn out to be very plausible, such as the tunnel at Hayle in Cornwall which really does seem to have been built specifically for smuggling. In other instances the tunnel either doubles as a storm drain or some other functional channel, or else is an extension of a natural fissure in the rock, as at Methleigh and Porthcothan respectively.[20]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Hidden East Anglia - Necton. Cite error: The named reference "Norfolk" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Service, John (Editor) (1887). The Life & Recollections of Doctor Duguid of Kilwinning. Pub. Young J. Pentland. p. 48. Cite error: The named reference "Service2" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  3. ^ Paterson, James (1863-66). History of the Counties of Ayr and Wigton. V. - III - Cunninghame. J. Stillie. Edinburgh. P. 140.
  4. ^ Dobie, James D. (ed Dobie, J.S.) (1876). Cunninghame, Topographized by Timothy Pont 1604–1608, with continuations and illustrative notices. Pub. John Tweed, Glasgow. P. 125.
  5. ^ Ness, J. A. (1969 - 70). Landmarks of Kilwynnyng. Privately printed. p. 31.
  6. ^ Ian Mortimer: The Perfect King: introduction
  7. ^ [http://www.cornwall-calling.co.uk/smugglers.htm Hayle, Kernow / Cornwall}
  8. ^ Castle Mysteries.
  9. ^ Bord, Janet & Colin (1973), Mysterious Britain, Pub. Garnstone press, London. ISBN 0-85511-180-1. P. 176.
  10. ^ a b c Glastonbury History & Traditions
  11. ^ Pride, David (1910), A History of the Parish of Neilston. Pub. Alexander Gardner, Paisley. Facing P. 128.
  12. ^ Hewitt, Davie (2006). Oral communication to Roger Griffith.
  13. ^ Loudoun, Craufuird, C. A History of the House of Loudoun and Associated Families. Pub. C. C. Loudoun. p 36.
  14. ^ Borland, Lindsey (2006). Oral communication to Griffith, Roger S. Ll.
  15. ^ Carmunnock Conservation Village (2008), Pub. Carmunnock Preservation Society. P. 8.
  16. ^ The Lurgan Tunnel
  17. ^ Glastonbury - Maker of Myths.
  18. ^ Newbury, Berksdhire Tunnel Myths
  19. ^ Atkin, Malcolm (1975), The Tunnels of Norwich, in 'Norfolk Fair', May 1975, pp. 6 - 7.
  20. ^ a b Smugglers' Britain
  21. ^ Henderson, William (1866). Notes on the Folk-lore of the Northern Counties.
  22. ^ Driffield Post - Secret Pasages.
  23. ^ The Manor House, Bracknell
  24. ^ Droitwich Spa tunnels.
  25. ^ Northampton & Thomas a Becket.
  26. ^ The Aalbord Secrte Tunnel
  27. ^ Gubkiv Castle, Ukraine
  28. ^ Prague Castle tunnels.
  29. ^ Malden, John, Edit. (2000). The Monastery & Abbey of Paisley. Pub. The Renfrewshire Local History Forum. ISBN 0-9529195-7-5.
  30. ^ Exeter's Underground Passages
  31. ^ Maynooth & Laraghbryan.

External Links

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