In the townland of Tirkilly, in Glenann, lies the abandoned clachan of Knockban. There are the ruins of a group of houses built in schist. Schist is a very ancient rock found abundantly in Glenann and in our Glens, a relic of the Ice Age. Melting glaciers that covered the land, inched downwards to sea level, carving out the Glens on their journey and eventually dumped their embedded rocks as the climate warmed.
The settlement is now well above the Glenann Road, but was originally on a ‘green road’ at a higher level, which led from Cushendun up through Glencorps to Glenann. The remains of that road are still visible at Knockban.
The families who lived there around the turn of the 19th/20th century were McLaughlins and McCambridges and more information on the families can be found on the Historical Society’s website www.antrimhistory.net/clachan project.
The families were still there in 1911 as confirmed by the Census Returns for that year. The 1921 Census, when it is published, will tell whether it was still inhabited ten years later.
The farming in Knockban was a mixture of growing potatoes in ridges, and oats which would have been threshed by flail. Each household would probably have owned one cow to produce milk for the family. The people were very self-sufficient; they were tailors and shoemakers and weavers.
Local lore suggested the settlement was abandoned overnight, which seems doubtful, but whatever the story, sadly it became derelict. It may have been because the new Glenann Road was built and the clachan was too remote or perhaps the size of the smallholdings did not yield an adequate standard of living. Perhaps the stories of wealth to be had in England or America lured the inhabitants into emigration. We can only speculate unless you can supply more information!
This post is part of the What’s That? Project. Funded by The Community Arts, Culture and Heritage Fund & The Community Foundation for NI. The aim of the project is to highlight local historical sites and give people a short history of what is there. Photos by John Healy.
