Knocks
DatedEst. 3300–2900 BCE
No licensed photograph yetWe have no photograph we may publish for this site, so the interpretive 3D view leads instead.
Overview
About this site
Overview
Knocks is a group of three boulder burials (also called boulder tombs) east of the R588 and north of Clonakilty (Cloich na Coillte) in County Cork, Ireland. The catalogue gives a typological estimate of 3300 to 2900 BCE. The site is marked as 'Boulder burial' on Ordnance Survey maps.
The three burials, labelled A to C, lie at the corners of a triangle with sides of about 1.5 m on level pasture, about 8.0 m east of one of the 48 ringforts around Clonakilty.
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Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
Article
Knocks
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Knocks (Cork)CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Knocks (Cork)CC BY-SA 4.0
Burial A, in the north-east, has a large, almost square capstone measuring 1.8 m in length, 1.7 m in width and 0.9 m in thickness, resting on four supporting stones.
Burial B, in the south-west, has a large round capstone 2.4 m in diameter and 0.6 m thick, resting on at least five supporting stones.
Burial C, in the north-west, has a rectangular capstone of about 2.0 m in length, 1.3 m in width and 0.65 m in thickness. It rests on three supporting stones, of which only two are visible.
NameSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Knocks (Cork)CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Knocks (Cork)CC BY-SA 4.0
The townland name Knocks derives from the Irish Na Cnoic, meaning 'the hills'.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Megalithic tombs of Ireland
Ireland has an unusually rich megalithic heritage, and the Atlas lists several kinds under one heading. In 1961 two Irish scholars, Seán Ó Nualláin and Rúaidhrí de Valera, described four categories of megalithic tomb: court cairns, portal dolmens, wedge-shaped gallery graves and passage tombs. Each has a different date, shape and geography.
Court cairns, with an uncovered courtyard at the front and roofed chambers behind, are the earliest; more than 390 were built in Ireland between 3900 and 3500 BCE, mostly in the north and west. Portal dolmens are single-chamber tombs with tall portal stones, of which Ireland has about 172, with Poulnabrone in the Burren the best known. Passage tombs, with a long passage leading to a chamber, form great cemeteries: Brú na Bóinne, Loughcrew, Carrowkeel and Carrowmore. Wedge tombs, with a chamber that narrows towards the back, are later, built between about 2500 and 2000 BCE, and 500 to 550 survive, mostly in the west and north-west.
Of the Irish megalithic tombs, only passage tombs appear to have a widespread distribution through Europe.
The Atlas gives each tomb its type's date range, which should be taken as approximate unless the site has been excavated.
Folklore: at Proleek in County Louth the dolmen is said, by local legend, to have been carried there by a Scottish giant, who was poisoned by the hero Fionn mac Cumhaill. It is a story, not evidence of date.
When visiting, check which of the four types you are looking at: a courtyard in front means a court cairn, tall portal stones mean a portal tomb, a narrowing chamber a wedge tomb, and a long passage a passage tomb.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Passage grave, Wikipedia: Court cairn, Wikipedia: Portal dolmen, Wikipedia: Wedge-shaped gallery grave, Wikipedia: Newgrange, Wikipedia: Poulnabrone dolmen, Wikipedia: Proleek Dolmen, Wikipedia: Carrowmore, Wikipedia: Loughcrew, Wikipedia: Carrowkeel Megalithic Cemetery · CC BY-SA 4.0
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 3300–2900 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for megaliths in Ireland; this site has not been dated itself. Megalithic construction in Ireland is placed at c. 3400 BC (Newgrange) and court cairns continued to be built until 2900 BC.Source for this date
Where it stands
Ireland
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 51°41′27″ N, 8°56′07″ WFor a GPS or map app: 51.69080, -8.93530
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
- DolmenCaherkirky4000–3000 BCE
Templebryan Stone Circle3300–2500 BCE
Lettergorman SW3300–2500 BCE- Stone circleKnockawaddra stone circle3300–2500 BCE
Reanascreena980–910 BCE- Stone circleBohonagh3300–2500 BCE
- Menhir (standing stone)Steinmonumente von Burgatia2800–1800 BCE
- DolmenPortal Tomb von Ahaglaslin4000–3000 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q27902829wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Knocks (Cork)" (German), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors
- Wikipedia (German): Knocks (Cork)CC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q27902829CC0