What is recorded here

Knockardbane holds a vast circular church enclosure where stone walls and forgotten ditches still mark the boundary between the sacred and the ordinary. Granard stands inside this ancient ring, watching over the dead while cattle graze the living earth above buried paths. The shape resists erasure because human memory keeps returning to it, drawing visible lines through soil and sky.

Indicated as curved field fence S->NNW on W side of townland boundary on 1842 OS 6-inch map with Granard church and graveyard (14440,14602) indicated immediately E of townland boundary. Not indicated on 1905 OS 6-inch map. Hachured as large circular enclosure (diam. c. 170m) on 1937 OS 6-inch map, bisected off-centre to SW by townland boundary and truncated slightly to N by field boundary; church and graveyard in centre. In undulating pasture. Interior defined by earthen field boundary NW->N and by scarp (H 0.5m) N->ESE; no visible surface trace of enclosing element ESE->S or of fosse S->NW both of which are indicated on 1937 OS 6-inch map. Well on line of enclosure to SE; surrounded by stone-built structure (2m x 2m; H 0.9m) topped by pump house. Adjoining ENE side of well is rectangular concrete trough; shallow rectangular stone basin, incorporated into stone wall of well, forms WSW end of concrete trough. Cropmark of three fosses visible in aerial photograph (CASAP, July 1989), most clearly defined to SW of townland boundary where they are concentric and c. 20m apart; cropmark of bank visible inside the outer fosse. Cropmark of possible entrance or pathway visible in aerial photograph on N side of enclosure joining inner and outer fosses; in field to NE of enclosure (c. 100m distant), possible trackway (L c. 350m) visible as cropmark of parallel fosses. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 4: North Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2000). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

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