Designed landscape feature

The National Monuments Service's description

On a rocky promontory immediately above a cliff on the SW side of Knockderc. The site occupies a strategic location where the ground falls steeply to the W, S and E. A 20th century quarry has removed much of the S and E of the monument; a small part may survive along its W margin or elsewhere. The ground to the N is flat and extends onto the summit of the hill. The site has panoramic views to the S, W and SE. Located 350m SSE of two conjoined stone circles (LI032-064----); 330m S of a stone circle (LI032-065003-) and a later field system (LI032-065001-) and 110m SE of a stone circle (LI032-065002-).
The site is not depicted on the 1840 ed. OSi 6-inch map which illustrates the rocky promontory. It is identified as an antiquity called ‘Caheer Baelee’ on the 1897 ed. OSi 25-inch and the Cassini OSi 6-inch maps. O’Kelly (1944, 31) discounted the monument citing Lynch (1913, 19) who wrote that; ‘on Knockderk there is a large seat formed out of the natural rock called Cathaoir "Baelee", and Cahir Baelee'. Depicted on the OSi map as a natural out cropping boulder in which there is a hollow roughly resembling a seat. It is now called the ‘Lady’s Chair’. The extent of the quarry is visible on Google Earth orthoimages taken 28/06/2018 and 20/09/2020. Fitzpatrick (2004, 167) doubted that 'Caheer Baelee' / 'Cathaoir Baelee' represented the remains of an inauguration chair but instead was the remains of a so-called landlords' chair named after the Bailey family who acquired lands around Lough Gur in the 17th century. Máire MacNeill (1962, 346-7) suggested that Knockderc was a Lughnasa Site based on the wide panoramic views from the hilltop, the presence of a stone seat, folkore beliefs in treasure buried in the hill, subterranean cavity etc.

See attached Google Street View July 2019 and Google Earth orthoimages

Compiled by: Edmond O’Donovan

Date of upload: 18 November 2020

References

FitzPatrick, E. 2004 Royal inauguration in Gaelic Ireland c.1100-1600: a cultural landscape study. Studies in Celtic History 22. Woodbridge. The Boydell Press.

MacNeill, M. 1962 The festival of Lughnasa. London. Oxford University Press.

Lynch, J.F. 1913 Antiquarian remains at Lough Gur. Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 19, 8-22.

O'Kelly, M.J. 1944 A survey of the antiquities in the barony of Small County, Co. Limerick. North Munster Antiquarian Journal 4, 16-53.