Anthropogenic sources of N₂O continue to increase. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has prescribed guidelines on how to construct inventories. The IPCC guidelines divide agricultural N₂O sources into three categories: direct emissions from agricultural land, emissions from animal waste systems, and indirect emissions associated with nitrogen (N) that is removed in biomass, volatilized, leached, or exported from the agricultural land. Each of the three N₂O source categories are considered to contribute an equal 1/3 share of the total estimated agricultural N₂O source. However, approximately 2/3 of the uncertainty in the total agricultural N₂O source is due to the wide range of estimates for indirect N₂O emissions. Further knowledge of the fate of N₂O in the subsoil is vital in order to improve our understanding of indirect N₂O emissions. Previous work has examined the fate of ¹⁵N₂O commencing with a ¹⁵N labelled nitrate pool. We describe a first attempt to introduce ¹⁵N₂O into the subsoil of soil columns. Soil columns (15 cm I.D. by 90 cm) were packed with a Temuka silt loam soil (Fluvaquentic Endoaquept) that had been sieved to < 0.4 cm, bulk density 0.7 g cm^-3. The soil columns were instrumented with silicone tube gas samplers and time domain reflectometry (TDR). Labeled ¹⁵N₂O was manufactured in the laboratory and introduced at 60 cm depth via passive diffusion from a 2 L flask. The aim was to emulate a denitrification ‘hot-spot' event in the subsoil. The fate of the N₂O and its rate of passage through the soil were monitored over time. Finally an irrigation event was applied to investigate the fate of the N₂O. Results of this study are reported.