While undertaking some pipe investigation at Boyle Family Resource Centre last week, workmen made an unusual discovery when they unearthed what looks like a deep stone lined well (pictured) at the rear of the building.
With two tunnel like exits from the shaft, it was initially thought the discovery could be connected to a tunnel system that according to locals runs from Boyle Abbey to various locations around Boyle town, culminating at Assylinn.
Local sources say there is reference to this tunnel and the ‘Assylinn Caves’ in the book the ‘Annals of Boyle’. It is said that ‘The Caves’, facing onto what was the swimming area on the Boyle river, was the exit of the tunnel that supposedly runs parallel with the river from the Abbey, along the rear of Main Street.
Following the discovery, contact was made with the Archaeology Department at the Atlantic Technology University in Sligo who suggest the find “looks like an old well, which once had flowing water at its base that has subsequently been blocked and would have been used before plumbed/piped water was made available to the town”.
The find is now being listed on a Monument Report Form for the Archaeological Survey of Ireland.
