What is recorded here

Knockballyfookeen holds a broad oval ringfort where mature beeches and thorns still crowd the grassy interior, proving the earth has never fully surrendered the shape. The Reask River flows ten metres away, marking the boundary with Cross, while a field drain now cuts through the outer bank at the south-west. People may have lived inside the stone and earth bank before trees claimed the space, but the fort remains visible enough to stop a cartwheeling mind and force it to remember what it is doing.

On gentle NE-facing slope, in gently undulating pasture, approx. 10m to SW of the Reask River which forms townland boundary with Cross (O'Dwyer 1959, 75). Surveyed by the ASI in 2008 and described as an oval-shaped area (24m N-S; 17m E-W) enclosed by an earth and stone bank (int. H 0.35m; ext. H 2.05m; Wth 8.4m) visible from SE-S-W-N reduced to a scarp (H 2.75m) from N-E-SE, an intervening fosse (overall Wth 9.95m; base Wth 4.6m; D 1.05m) and traces of an external bank (Wth 5.15m; int. H 1.05m; ext. H 0.15m) only visible from SSW-W-NW, with a gap (overall Wth 3.5m; base Wth 1m) at W. There is a breach at SSW where the outer bank is truncated by a field drain running ENE-WSW. The interior has a gradual ENE-facing slope and is planted with mature Beech trees and self-seeded thorn trees. Monument is visible as a tree-planted earthwork on Digital Globe orthophotos taken 2011-13 and on Google Earth orthoimages taken 28/06/2018. See attached plan and cross-sections surveyed and drawn by the ASI. Compiled by: Alison McQueen and Vera Rahilly Date of upload: 15 July 2020

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