Secret Passages & Hidden Tunnels

The fourth in the Triskele Heritage 2021-22 Winter Series of lectures.

Following on from the popular Lockdown Lectures which, ran from January to May 2021, this new series of monthly lectures by buildings archaeologist James Wright will examine commonly held myths about the mediaeval period.

Every single hamlet, village, town and city in the British Isles has a story of secret passages running beneath the landscape. The tales speak of hidden tunnels connecting the castle and the monastery, or the hermitage and the pub, or the church and the manor house. Often these are supposed to be escape tunnels, sometimes they are connected with smuggling or treasure, on other occasions the given reasons for their existence are somewhat salacious and scandalous.

The folklore of Britain’s subterranean landscape is ubiquitous, but is there ever any archaeological evidence for these yarns? What are the underlying truths? Can the stories ever tell us something about how people think about their communities and heritage?

The speaker, James Wright (Triskele Heritage), is an award winning buildings archaeologist. He has two decades professional experience of ferreting around in people’s cellars, hunting through their attics and digging up their gardens. He hopes to find meaningful truths about how ordinary and extraordinary folk lived their lives in the mediaeval period. He is the author of the popular Mediaeval Mythbusting Blog.

All you need to do is register via Eventbrite and – when the time for the talk rolls around – grab your favourite beverage of choice, get comfy and enjoy.

The event will take place at 17:00GMT on Thursday 17 February 2022 .

Booking is now available via Eventbrite.

Due to our licensing agreement with Zoom tickets for each event will be limited to 495 places. If you cannot make it after booking, please do return your ticket so that someone else can enjoy the talk instead.

Please note that this live event will not be recorded and made available online afterwards.

If you have a question about the event – in the first instance please see our FAQs section. The answer will almost certainly be in there.

*** If you have any problems accessing this event please email with your booking reference to james@triskeleheritage.com ***