Tunnels in popular culture

Legends about the existence of secret tunnels usually involve improbably long subterranean passages, sometimes running under major obstacles such as rivers and lakes to reach their destinations.

On occasion, possible tunnels prove to be of purely natural origin, such as at Cleeves Cove cave in Scotland, or Kents Cavern in England.

Other examples were longer: the young king Edward III was imprisoned by Roger de Mortimer, 1st Earl of March at Nottingham Castle, and in 1330 a small group of armed supporters of Edward III made use of a long, winding secret passage which led directly into the castle, allowing them to surprise and capture Mortimer.

Another tunnel allowed for the supposed free and secret movement of monks, abbots and other ecclesiastics who may have had cause to keep a low profile for fear of attack or abusive treatment during periods of unrest or persecution.

[1] Smugglers at times avoided the excise man by making use of drains, sewers or water supply conduits, although in a few cases they seem to have constructed tunnels for the purpose of smuggling.

Bruce Walker, an expert on Scottish vernacular architecture, has suggested that the relatively numerous and usually long-ruined ice houses on country estates may have led to Scotland's many tunnel legends.

[9] Many legends are associated with the actual and supposed activities of the Knights Templar and they are rich in stories about tunnels connecting the various properties that the order possessed up to the 12th century, when it was suppressed.

It is believed that the legendary tunnel was constructed in medieval times as an escape route to the castle for the abbot and canons of the abbey in case of an attack from the Scots, who were continually making raids into the northern counties of England.

[14] Another widely believed legend is that of a 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.

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 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.

[7] 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 present at the Maid's Head Hotel.

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] In Redcar and 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.

[22] The story that Thomas Becket fled 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.

[23] At Binham Priory in Norfolk a fiddler entered the tunnel which ran beneath the building and could be heard for some distance before all sound of him suddenly ceased.

[2]: 400 The rhyme below dates from the 17th century and recalls the tradition that a tunnel connects what is now Syon House with the friary of Sheen at Richmond in Surrey, a considerable distance away.

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 his wife.

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

It is reported that once the Laird of Auchenskeich's collie dog entered the cave at its entrance above the Dusk Water and came out at Loudoun Hill near Darvel, many miles away.

Persistent rumours exist of a tunnel which is said to run 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.

A tunnel is believed to exist beneath Culross Abbey in Fife and within a man is said to sit on a golden chair waiting to give valuable treasures to anyone who succeeds in finding him.

Many years ago a blind piper decided to try and upon entering at Newgate with his dog he proceeded to search and could be heard playing his pipes as far as the West Kirk, three quarters of a mile away.

This tunnel is said to contain a great deal of treasure as recorded in these lines; From the Camp of Ardoch, To the Grinnin Hill of Keir, Are nine Kings rents, For seven hundred year.

Later drainage conduits transported waste water 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.

[56] At Paisley Abbey in Scotland, few of the original monastic buildings survived into the 20th century, so landscaping of the area around the church in 1990 provided an ideal opportunity to investigate the positions of those now "lost" channels.

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.

Other escape tunnels were longer, such as at Nottingham Castle, where the young king Edward III was imprisoned by Roger de Mortimer, 1st Earl of March.

The attackers entered through a long, winding secret passage which led directly into the castle, allowing them to surprise and capture Mortimer, releasing the king, who was unharmed.

[18] Beith in North Ayrshire was a notorious haunt of smugglers at one time, and legend has it that a tunnel ran from the town centre down to Kilbirnie Loch.