200 Year Old Map Solves Mystery In The Forest 

UPDATE! Temporary fencing has now been put up around the holes. No official reply yet, but I’m assuming this means they have plans for something more permanent.

Not often RU-vid recommendations turns up a gem but this time it did

Hi Stephen. My name is Ed Young & I live in the Southern United States. I'm 63 years old and this is the very first video of yours I've watched. Already, I'm hooked. Your presentation is excellent. The humor in the video is priceless with all the funny texts you include to poke fun at you. At the same time i admire your work because you've obviously done your research and checked out your findings with reputable sources. BRAVO! I cant wait to see more of your videos. Keep up the great work. - Ed

Good lad ringing the water service and putting up that make shift fence!What a terrifying end it would be if some camper fell into that hole.....

Good you made it safer. They told us in school that with every data copy we loose a specific amount of data. This was meant for IT age, but it also applies here: By copying the map, they just omitted them and the data got lost.

Not King William's little "hello" absolutely jumpscaring the piss out of me in the headphones while I'm home alone

the bit at the end proves you, sir, are a good soul.

Discussing history isn't political... it's historical. If the British government couldn't give a flying what not about the starving Irish...you are entitled to say it, without worrying about whether or not it's politcal. Fascinating video...and some great images inside those holes 👍 Excellent 👏

Very interesting. The idea of someone walking through those woods (especially at night) not knowing those holes were there, terrifies me. I do wonder why the test holes were made so close to houses though.

You could have spun a fantastic yarn about the great leprechaun hunt of 1835 and how these were the remnants of the traps 🤣

The old maps reminded me of time spent in the local reference library poring over OS maps from the 18/1900's looking for cool things to explore. I was a weird kid! We found a couple of forgotten wells around Ballymena, one in Ballykeel and one in Galgorm, along with an overgrown ringfort in the grounds of Galgorm Castle. It's really cool that all that historical information is available online now. Back then they wouldn't even let us make photocopies of the maps so we sat in the library sketching them out by hand.

So glad you secured those holes Stephen, great video once again. Old ruins in the trees are beautiful. This is proper exploring finding gems like this to make you curious of what was once going on in these areas many years ago. Great work by the guys doing the map research 👏

I just spent 21 minutes looking at a video about holes. I enjoy.

That was fascinating Stephen and well done for securing it so less likely for someone to be killed

The thing I find crazy is that you can load up 200-year-old maps on a hiking app

That's what I like a good investigation,,, dig up history, maps , papers etc.... Excellent Work Sir !!! Thank You !!!!

Now that was a fun and interesting, and investigative story - really enjoyed that :)

Thank you for sharing this feeling of wonder! Ireland is already a magical place as it is. Discovering it's ancestry and lost places truly brings out a sense of glee in my heart!! Thank you

You're the 678th channel I've subscribed to in the past 10 years. Now I'm having to ignore 677 of them whilst I go through your very interesting back catalogue of over 400 videos. Now I have something to keep me busy for a few weeks.

This is the content I need from local channels

Brilliant follow up video Stephen 👍 And thank you for doing all that research and then sharing it with us. I love this type of history.

When I went there it was very eerie. I initially thought it was an old mining area. The barbed wire fence seems in worse condition than 3 years ago. When I lived in Ireland, there were a few locations similar to this. Keep up the good work, Stephen.

You, Stephen, are brilliant! And to do the right thing at the end too? Brilliant x2! What a brilliant story!

It's like watching Tony Robinson on Time Team, but less geophysics! Excellent stuff...

That explains my friends house , I commented on his shed once and he said there's 6 more down in the forest , an entire village abandoned. Yea top of a mountain almost with river flowing right through it, I know a few more near me but lucky for me never found a hole like that yet or fallen in one.

I'm glad you contacted the government and let them know that the barbed wire was down. It would be bad for some midnight hiker to fall in one of these holes. Your documentary was excellent! Your research was very good. Professionally done! Very interesting and educational content! Thank you.

Yeah that really was fascinating. Thanks for investigating and making this alternative set of videos upon discovering the holes. Loved this, really well done too, and looking forward to any confirmation you get. Hope they'll put up fences too. Nice work on the temp ones, much better than the ankle high trip wire 👌

Utterly fascinating. Thank you.

I think this format is working for you. I loved it. I would have one for you that would take you back to donegal - Gila Island and the history of why people went off the island. Keep going Stephen - you are beginning to snowball.

I LOVE videos like this! Please keep doing this!

Got this video in my feed for some reason. I'm glad I watched it. Loved it. I'll be checking out your other videos.

wow, that was exciting, no matter what it ended up being 👍! That was the first video of yours. My ancestors are Irish and unfortunately I don't know anything about them but I definitely want to go to Ireland ❤️

So glad this popped up seemingly at random.. I'm hooked - fascinating !

An excellent video young Stephen, thankfully you got answers to all the questions. Many thanks for all your hard work.

Had me gripped there Stephen in your uniquely modest, self-deprecating but infectious style. 👏 Atb, Paul

This whole saga has been riveting! Thanks to you and also Gary for doing the research. Quite the rabbit hole! 🕳️

Respect after you put a barrier around the test hole. That’s what helped make my mind up to subscribe. Great job. Interesting video.

very interesting, well researched! Nice meeting you at Glencoe Mountain Resort today! Anna from Germany

Great video, very informative. And well done for fencing it off.

Absolutely great video steven ! A lot of effort has clearly gone into this so well done you !! Always great work from you 💪💪

I actually LOVE videos like this, going back and investigating old places like this that have been forgotten over time. My Great Aunt's house actually has a well INSIDE the house. My great grandpa built the well BY HAND way back when (sometime around the early to late 1930s). The well is somewhere around 60 feet deep as it is located near the rear of the house where the house's 1st floor is technically the 2nd due to a basement. My great grandpa also lined the first 20 feet or so in brick before getting to bedrock where he didn't have to use brick anymore. The well is in what is now the laundry room of the house and is now bordered over and no longer used. But i can remember back in the late 1980s when i was like 6 or 7 years old, my great aunt would freak out anytime i got anywhere near the thing, as she was afraid it might break and id fall in...lol. I would LOVE to be able to actually reopen the well and see what its like down inside it today. I wonder if there is still water in there and if so how clean it would be with ZERO disturbance for the last 50+ years.

Brilliant, the mundane reason doesn't matter, just loved the story.

Only half way through video, but really fascinated with this history. Well done! Brilliant. Of course you would make it safer and alert someone.🙂

This was super interesting Stephen! Exactly the kind of content that keeps me watching. Love local history mysteries. Absolutely brilliant video.

Excellent research. Enjoyed that thank you 😊

Thank you for sharing this information as it was very interesting to see. We living a world where there is so much history & you just shared some with this Australian. It’s so fascinating to learn & I love to learn history. Once again thank you ♥️♥️

Just phenomenal cinematography my friend, captivating and masterfully narrated!

Thank you, this was a fascinating video! Usually I will just scrub to the end to find out the answer to the "question" but I wanted to watch very minute as you explored and tried to solve the mystery. Interesting to watch from the first minute to the last. I'm hooked!

So cool to find old foundations and walls in a forest, just so many questions.

Such a good video Steve! 😊 Love learning a bit of history, even if it’s less fun than a portal to the upside down. 😂

Great stuff. 1: You accidentally found these holes as opposed to inventing a fantastic story to explain a well documented and explained conundrum. 2: You obtained, examined and compared existing evidence that could provide an explanation. 3 : Having completed your field survey you not only drew conclusions but also undertook a personal initiative to both secure a dangerous hazard and inform the relavent authorities.

Beautiful history there! Its on our bucket list to spend a month in Ireland exploring

I agree with the comment below me which says not very often YT recommendations comes up with a Gem but this time they did and of course I had to like n' subscribe Cheers from a new Canadian fan the Crazy Canuck on Vancouver Island

I thoroughly enjoyed this video! Beautiful country, excellent explanations.

Amazing Stephen! I’ve been sooo looking forward to that! You have an amazing talent for creating stories on film and what a show that was! It was a real pleasure to work with you and have to say, a real satisfaction getting to the “bottom” of it! Thanks for the shout out BTW, very kind indeed! I was actually getting embarrassed at one point😂 So thanks again and maybe catch you out the hills sometime! ATB

Totally enjoyed this. Well done.

Love this film, a great story telling

Your video got out thank you for sharing I was more interested in the old house and forest very beautiful

Same builder Oak Island!!

I'm so impressed by your research into this! And the footage you've recorded. I was quite literally gripped! Well done on a brilliant film 👏 this is excellent

I had just discovered your channel with that video and it was great. One more subscriber! Cheers from France

fascinating stuff. thanks for investigating and sharing.

YT thought I might like this video and boy, they were right! Partly because strange holes in the ground are fascinating and partly because I'm a first-generation Irish American! Just sub'd. I hope to see some from where my dad was born and raised, western Co. Clare, backyard overlooking the ocean. But if not, all of ancient Eire is awesome. BTW, a bit of bragging... Bunratty was our family castle for a time during the 1600s. If ever there, you must partake of the medieval feast. Messy AF but totally worth it.

What the English government did to Ireland was horrendous and I’m truly sorry the Irish had to go through that horrific time. Love you Ireland ❤️ from 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Recommendations for further investigation: Attach a hook to a rope and pull out limbs and debris. Attach weight to rope and get depth measurement. Attach magnet to rope and see if you have any luck. Attach GoPro to rope and lower to half a foot shy of bottom. Hopefully you now have a water hole that is free from obstructions and by dropping short you won't have soot (mulm) blacking out the visibility for best production result.

Just a stumbled onto this video and you got me hooked! Can’t wait to work my way through your content.

the algorithm worked today, glad this showed up for me

Great Video, I remember seeing holes like this as a child in the woods. It was usually near a stone building or fence. I always thought it was where small homesteads quarried the stone to make the wall or home. They just filled up over time with water and debris. Sometimes the homes used them like a dump.

I'm honestly surprised the holes weren't full of dead animals that had accidentally fallen in.

Admire your tenacity and determination to find out what these shafts were for. It’s always fascinating to be in a place where people have lived and try and imagine what their lives were like. What was the App you used to look at old maps? I have the UK OS map App but don’t think it’s possible to go back in map history as you were doing. First visit to your channel and I have subscribed.

It's a wonder they're not full of rubbish. Where I live, old mine shafts were frequently used as rubbish dumps years ago.

Loved this video, so interesting. Hope you’re having fun on your Cairn, mine arrives in the last week in March, can’t wait. As always keep up the exemplary videos 😊😊😊

The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth.

We need way more folks like this dude here

Imagine digging those holes by hand

I really appriciate what you are doing. I am facinated by old, forgotten ruins. I've found 1 myself in Finland, Hinthaara village. Keep up the good work ✊️

first time i've seen your work and you are bloody entertaining! Cheers from Australia

found your video about the "Algae" in the Loch. decided i'd see what the rest of your chanel's about. and i'm in love. with your content, at least. and your heart. the thing that really made me hit the subscribe button, was you putting up that temporary fence to keep other people safe at the very end.

Crazy that they left the test holes open. Also odd that there aren't piles of excavated material adjacent to the holes.

very impressed by your research and analysis, with some invaluable help from your correspondent, and for securing the perimeter of these dangerous holes. You would think that some sort of heavy duty covers would make the safest solution but that's beside the point. It seems you have nailed it. You have a new subscriber. Thank you.

Fantastic story! I found the entire thing fascinating, and would not have liked being one of the people to build those holes 200 years ago.

Wow thanks for this. I appreciate your efforts, visuals and the research were fantastic. Also grateful for you showing the length the way you did and also the conversions for the US folks.

The first thing I thought when I saw you standing next to that thing was “death trap”. Imagine falling into that thing and realizing that no one knows where you are, while you tread water… 🙁

Bravo Sir, this is a fascinating follow up video.

I think you did good even putting up temporary fencing to help the water service out.

That gopro footage looks like the start of a good horror movie!

Great video and history thank you!

Who else watched the “hole” video hoping it was going to be where the dead were thrown?

Fascinating mystery. Great job. Thank you.

It’s not political to stand up for your culture, people or country. Nice adventure 👍😁

Fantastic gripping video. Thank you, et al, for making it. ( I hope that's the correct use of et al)

Mysterious holes. Thanks for uploading!

I also become fascinated with these types of things that I often feel I am the only one that notices or cares about them. Occasionally I also get to the bottom of them, but I am not a youtube creator, so I never get to share. This is so well done, thank you and again - I can relate to your journey.

Hmm. Why wouldn’t they fill the test holes when done with the test. Seems mysterious still

Throw a magnetfishing magnet in there and see what comes up

That's brilliant, have wondered this for years . Came across this 3 years ago . Class video

That was absolutely brilliant :) Liked and subbed :) Your presenting and editing style was a joy to watch. I'm definitely a fan :)

Love this format of content mate. Please do more ❤

Totally loved the ending wmsl! Great video Steve😊👍

What a great history lesson, thank you.