What is recorded here

Knockanaman is a small limestone graveyard on Inis Mór where local tradition holds that O'Brien women watched their own kind destroy one another. The east end still crowds tiny plain stones and an upright cross, while newer graves lie west behind a concrete wall. Even without names on most markers, the place preserves a brutal family memory and leaves room for the women's grief to be imagined.

On a limestone knoll on S side of road, close to Port Mhuirbhigh, Inis Mór. Indicated on the 1899 edition of the OS 6-inch map as a roughly D-shaped unenclosed area (L/Wth c. 20m); it is now enclosed by a concrete wall. The modern graves are at W end but there is a high concentration of small plain gravestones at E, amongst which is a small upright cross-slab (GA110-048002-). The knoll is known locally as Cnocán na mBan from a tradition that the O'Briens slaughtered each other almost to extinction, watched by their womenfolk from this area. The field to N, on other side of road, is called Fearann na gCeann (GA110-048001-) from the skulls said to have been dug up there (Robinson 1980). The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Galway Vol. I - West Galway'. Compiled by Paul Gosling (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1993). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Updated by: Olive Alcock 7 April 2016 Date of revised upload: 7 April 2016

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