Crossword Genius

Hard rock in set of bars around UK province (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

granite

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'hard rock' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)

'set of bars around uk province' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'province' could be 'ni' (short for Northern Ireland, a province of the UK) and 'ni' is present in the answer.
'bars' could be 'grate' and 'grate' is found in the leftover letters.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'in' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for granite that I've seen before include "Hard granular rock" , "Get rain (anag) - rock" , "Tearing (anag.)" , "A very hard rock from Tangier" , "Hard igneous rock" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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