What is recorded here

Knockmajor rises above Coolraheen South as a flat-topped oval mound, perhaps the buried heart of the black lough battle Tighe described. Men stripped its stones for cabin walls while the earth remained, holding forgotten bones and the shape of a violent night. The western half vanished under human hunger, leaving only the eastern ridge to mark what was taken.

On a gently sloping upland moor with a small river valley to the E and slightly higher hills to the W, in rolling grassland. According to Tighe (1802, 633), 'In the parish of Macullee south east of Purcell's-hill, is a place called Reighlig na lughduigh or the burying place of the black lough; here there were about twenty small upright stones, placed like grave stones, at the head and feet of bodies; by digging between them Mr. Ellis found some decayed bones, near the surface; there is a faint tradition in this country that a battle was fought here....On the summit of a hill called Knock-major from a modern proprietor Major Purcell, and above the place of burial, is a small circular enclosure [KK011-022----]; most of the monumental stones [of the Reighlig] have lately been taken away, to build the walls of a cabin'. An oval mound (dims. c. 59m E-W; c. 33m N-S) is depicted on the 1st (1839) ed. OS 6-inch map, straddling a townland boundary. On the 1899 revision only the eastern portion, within the townland of Coolraheen South, is depicted, suggesting that the western portion had been levelled. This E portion survives as a roughly oval flat-topped mound (max. dims. 35m E-W; 18m N-S; H 4m; diam. of top c. 15m E-S; c. 8m N-S), partly quarried into at the NE. There is no evidence of any grave-markers. This mound may be the burial ground (KK011-017002-) mentioned by Tighe. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 31 January 2019

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