Stone circle in Knockfennell

Possible stone circle located 6m SE of a ringfort (LI032-014003-) which is a National monument in state ownership No. 247. Situated on S facing slope or rising ground at the base of Knockfennel Hill, now standing 40m N of the NW shoreline of Lough Gur. On the first edition of the OS 6-inch map the ringfort is shown standing on the edge of the shoreline of Lough Gur. Ringfort stands on N side of Lough Gur, S of Knockfennell and to the NE of Ardaghlooda Hill. Loughgur House stands 300m to NW. Cashel (LI032-014006-) 195m to N, adjacent field system (LI032-014004-), stone circle (LI032-014005-) and possible settlement platform (LI032-014002-) 50m to W. Garret Island in the centre of Lough Gur 180m to S, with crannóg (LI032-012----) 300m to W. In 1944 the D-shaped ringfort (LI032-014003-) with adjoining field system (LI032-014004-), and an arc of low orthostats to SE was described as following; 'The fort (LI032-014003-) is partly carved out of the hill slope, which is steep on the N side of it and it is only on this side that a fosse occurs. On the S there is none as here the ground falls away from the monument and a certain amount of building up had to be done to make the structure approximately level, though it still has a considerable slope to the S. The fort is the central feature of a system of ancient fences (LI032-014004-) which cover the lower slopes of a hill on this side. These fences are mainly earthen and among them are discernible a number of small enclosures or huts. On the SE side of it is the arc of stones described above' (O'Kelly 1944, 48). This arc of stones was described by O'Kelly (1944, 47) as following; 'An arc of 8 fairly large stones situated close to the edge of the lake at the SW base of Knockfennel Hill. If the arc were completed to form a circle its diam. would be 50' [15m] approx. Situated 21' [6m] due N of the W end of the arc is an earthen fort [LI032-014003-], so that if the arc were complete and still in existence at the time of the building of the fort, a large part of the circle would be covered by it. There is no evidence that this is so and it is quite possible that the arc is a chance formation of stones'. Today the outline of the roughly D-shaped ringfort with traces of a field system to NW are clearly visible on Digital Globe aerial photograph. The arc of stones may be visible to the SE of the ringfort as small white dots.