Dual Entrance and Above Ground Hatch Cellars

Dual Entrance Cellars

Dual entrance cellars are set into the ground and lined with rocks or concrete. A shed is built on top of the cellar that has its own entrance. Sometimes the cellar and shed areas can only be accessed through their own doors; sometimes there is an interior hatch that connects the two parts of the structure.

A rarer type of cellar, this example is from Bryant’s Cove, Conception Bay.

Root cellar with two entrances. The stop shed is white with a red door and roof.

Bryant’s Cove Dual Entrance Root Cellar, July 2011.

Above Ground Hatch Cellars

A type of cellar that required a bit of agility to enter was the above ground hatch cellar. This is a freestanding structure covered with earth mound and thick sod on the exterior. This cellar design, though, requires entry to the cellar to be from above through a hatch door rather than a ground level door.

The design of these cellars can vary with the design of the shed structure above it. Some above ground hatch cellars do not have a shed top house at all and the entry to the cellar is from a hatch door directly outside.

This type of cellar is quite rare, in Newfoundland and Labrador, there are only a few examples which come from Fogo Island and Change Islands.

Square wooden brace in a grassy field with long grass inside the covering the inside of the brace.

Above Ground Hatch Cellar in Change Islands, October 2021.

Square wood hatch door in the ground of a long grassy field.

Above Ground Hatch Cellar in Change Islands, October 2021.

Above ground rectangular wood braced structure in a grassy field.

Above Ground Hatch Cellar in Change Islands, October 2021.

Above Ground Cellars Other Cellar Types