Where is Knockanduns?

The placename Knockanduns appears several times in the registers of Ballykelly and Bovevagh Presbyterian Presbyterian churches both near the town of Limavady.

Bovevagh Presbyterian register of baptisms:
Born 27 Aug 1823 baptised 10 Sept 1823 Mary Anne dau of John Taggart & Mary Ann Whiteside of Knockanduns
Born 6 Aug 1824 baptised 18 Aug 1824 James son of Joseph Gallagher & Rose Robison of Knockanduns

Ballykelly Presbyterian register of marriages 
August 3 1811 Mathew Gray of Bevedagh married to Charlot Cairns of Ballynarg – Mr Gray certificated for Mathew and Thomas Cairns father of Charlott for her – said Thomas with Joseph Patton of Knockanduns other witness. 

Bovevagh Presbyterian marriage register 
Married 6 July 1824 Samuel Patten of Knockanduns to Ann Douglas (dau of William Douglas) of Boigh.

Knockanduns is not listed as an official townland for the Roe valley area. I consulted the Ordnance Survey Memoirs Index of townland names (published by the Institute of Irish Studies, QUB) and found one reference to the place in Volume 25 for the parish of Tamlaght Finlagan (page 62).

In the Ordnance Survey memoirs of 1835, JB Williams writes of the natural features of the parish of Tamlaght Finlagan, 'of these smaller hills, the Knockanduns at the south-east extremity of the parish are very remarkable: they consist of a group of gravel hills, which rise abruptly above the surrounding country and present the appearance of forts, from which circumstances they have received their name. Their highest point is 439 feet above sea-level.

The church registers indicated that two members of the Patton family resided in the Knocanduns, namely Samuel and Joseph.

In contemporary records we find Samuel Patton in the tithes of 1826 in Ballydarrog and Joseph Patton in the 1831 census in Moys townland. 

Both Moys and Ballydarrog are contiguous and were formerly in the parish of Tamlaght Finlagan before being transferred to the newly formed parish of Carrick in 1846. Both Moys and Ballydarrog can be found on the hills to the west of the river Roe in an area known to locals as the Highlands (indeed, the electoral division for this area is called The Highlands). 

It seems likely then that Knockanduns refers to the hilly lands that one climbs on the Moys & New Line Roads above Limavady, that includes the townlands of Moys and Ballydarrog. 
                  Highlands electoral division



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