Field system in Knockfennell — Report the wrong picture

What is recorded here

Knockfennell Hill carries a forgotten grid of stone walls above Lough Gur, wrapping three enclosures, two huts, a ring cairn and a cave in a broad rectangular shape. The boundaries still break through rocky pasture, marking fields where people may have grown food or kept animals before the land became open grazing. What is certain is that the hill was shaped for human use, and what is lost is the voice of the people who lived inside that shape.

In rocky pasture on the summit and around Knockfennell Hill overlooking and adjacent to Lough Gur which forms the S boundary of the hill. The field system surrounds three enclosures (LI032-014006-\183\338----); two hut sites (LI032-014007/8-); a ring cairn (LI032-014009-) and a cave site (LI032-281----). The field system may be an extension of a similar relic field system (LI032-014004-) 150m to SW. Relic field boundaries that are likely to be part of the this system are also located on the E slope of Knockfennell Hill 100m NE of the Red Cellar Cave (LI032-281-). The field system is partially depicted on the 1840 ed. OSi 6-inch map but is later absent completely from the 1897 ed. OSi 25-inch map and the Cassini OSi 6-inch map. The field boundaries are visible on the OSi orthoimages taken 2005-12 and on Digital Globe orthoimages taken 2011-2013. Identified as a relic field systems by Ó Ríordáin (1954, 458) who describes ‘cultivation terraces in the valley below Knockfennell’ and O’Kelly (1978, 27, 30) who note field systems around the ringfort (LI032-014003-), although these field systems (LI032-014004-) are recorded separately. The rectangular field system consists of a spine boundary wall curving and extending NE-SW from enclosure (LI032-014006-) across the hillside with collapsed boundaries extending off it N to the townland boundary with Grange and S to the lakeside (ext. dims. 430m NE-SW; 320m NW-SE). Two fields with evidence for spade cultivation are located immediately NE of the enclosure (LI032-014006). The field system is visible on oblique aerial photographs taken 14/07/1966 (CUCAP APC080) and on Google Earth orthoimages taken 05/04/2006; 25/03/2017; 20/03/2018 and 20/09/2020. See attached CUCAP APC080 and Google Earth orthoimages Compiled by: Edmond O’Donovan Date of upload: 4 November 2020

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