Chapter XI: Part I (6)

All the articles figured on plate XXXV. were found in the crannog of Cloonfinlough, and are now in the British Museum. No. 1 (one-fourth real size) represents a leaf-shaped dagger, skean, or knife, of an extremely early type; it is a characteristic specimen of its class. Similar weapons have, in Ireland, frequently occurred in company with socketed celts, paalstaves, spear-heads, and other implements of the so-called “Bronze Age.” The handle is very small, perforated for insertion of a rivet, and probably the haft had been originally prolonged by the addition of a piece of bone, horn, or wood, secured to the bronze by means of the rivet. No. 2 (full-size) is an _eo_ or brooch of bronze of a not unusual design, having a long pin and broad flat ends, with a sunk lozenge in each, filled with a hatched pattern. This form of dress-fastener must have remained unchanged during many ages, for whilst it seems to have been common in the later “Iron period,” it has also occasionally been found under circumstances which point to much earlier days and usages. One example was discovered in a cinerary urn amongst calcined bones. No. 3 (full-size) is a pin of bronze with a crozier-like termination, ornamented with a series of minute indentations, arranged without any regular pattern. A number of these objects have been discovered in Christian cemeteries in Ireland--as at Clonmacnoise and the Arran Islands. No. 4 (full-size) is a very small arrow-head of iron; traces of a rivet hole are yet discernible. No. 5 (one-third real size) is a ring made from the crown of a stag’s horn, and polished on the interior; its use unknown. No. 6 (one-third real size) represents a double-bladed axe-head; similar implements occurred at Lagore and at Drumdarragh; they belong to the late “Iron period,” and vary greatly in dimensions. No. 7 (one-third real size) is a single-piece shoe of leather, joined at the heel and toe; at each side is a slit for a thong or strap to be brought over the instep. Articles of this kind were used amongst the Irish down to a very late period. Some specimens, highly decorated in early Celtic style, have been figured by Wilde.

Objects of various Materials from the Crannog of Cloonfinlough, and now in the British Museum.]

_Fishing Implements._--It is probable that on account of the smallness of their size, many bronze fishing-hooks may have been overlooked by searchers amongst crannog sites, though a number of specimens formed of iron occurred amongst the relics of ancient Dublin during the excavations made many years ago in Christ Church-place, and Fishamble-street. Several implements of iron, evidently designed for the capture of fresh-water prey, have been found on the sites of crannogs, and may now be seen in the Museum, R. I. A. Plate XXXVI. No. 1 is the head of an eel-spear, one of several exhumed from the debris of the Ardakillen crannogs; no trace of the handle remained. The implement consists of nine barbed prongs (the wings of the heads nearly touching each other) set in an oblong-shaped socket, composed of extremely thin iron plates or bands, that measure in width 5½ inches, in depth 2¾ inches, and are of sufficient strength to receive and secure the prongs; these average somewhat less than a quarter of an inch at their greatest diameter, which occurs near the head. The socket in its various parts is secured together by a number of rivets, irregularly set; from it descends a shaft measuring 4¾ inches. It is at first quadrangular, but midway assumes a cylindrical form, resembling sockets of crannog spears of the later “iron period,” and like them secured to wooden handles by a rivet. The implement presents altogether a rough and bizarre appearance. No. 2 is a smaller example of an eel-spear, with socket, and having only eight barbed prongs. No. 3 is another form of fish-spear, or gaff. It measures 9½ inches in length, and is furnished at its pointed head with two long narrow barbs designed for holding. Unlike the spear and arrow-heads used in war, or in the chase, this implement was secured to its wooden shaft by a tang. Nos. 4, 5, 7, and 8, are darts or spear-heads of the same class. Save in size, they differ very slightly from No. 3, but are considerably eroded by the moisture of the bog-stuff in which they were embedded. No. 6 is a highly-finished head of the fish-spear class, though at first sight it might almost be taken for an arrow-head. Its barbs were, however, evidently intended to hold any substance into which they might be struck; the tang is solid and octangular, and just at the point where it joins the head there are three rather deep transverse notches. No. 9 is an ordinary iron fish-hook.

Fishing Implements of Iron from Crannogs. Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 from Ardakillen or Strokestown Crannogs. No. 9 from Lagore. All one-third real size.]

_Historical Notices of Crannogs._--According to Keller, Swiss “_Pfahlbauten_,” or pile dwellings, attained their highest development about fifteen hundred years B.C. This statement he founds on the absence in them of traces of winter corn, hemp, and domestic fowl (unknown to the Greeks till the time of Pericles). These lacustrine sites appear to have been abandoned about, or perhaps before, the commencement of the Christian era; whilst on the other hand, although we have no account of the first erection of crannogs in Ireland, and must therefore consider their origin to date back from prehistoric times, yet we have undoubted proofs of their continued use down to the close of the seventeenth century; although now where

“… swells the wave
All other sounds are still,
And strange and mournfully sound they;
Each seems a funeral cry
O’er life that long has past away,
O’er ages long gone by.”

In Connaught, next after Ulster, the greatest number of lake dwellings have been discovered, but a list of them could have only temporary value, as further explorations might greatly change, or even reverse, the numerical superiority of the crannog sites in Ulster. It is only of late that Munster can be said to be embraced within the lake-dwelling area, whose ambit now includes the entire kingdom. From the present stand-point, the northern province, however, seems to have been _facile princeps_ the home of the lake-dweller. Its population, even to the close of the seventeenth century, followed a life of rude and primitive character. The waters of the Erne, its tributaries and lakes, stretched for a distance of nearly sixty miles; the counties of Monaghan and Cavan of the present day formed then a district of low wooded hills, interlaced with a perfect net-work of bogs and lakes, through which ran but one road--that by Carrickmacross in the barony of Farney--whilst the Few mountains, at that period wooded, served to complete a “scientific frontier” of nature’s own formation. The term “Lake Country” has often been applied to the county Fermanagh: indeed the whole territory would seem at no very remote date to have been a watery maze. Upon almost every side may be observed either marshes that had once been lakes, or else sheets of water varying in size, from what may be termed lakes to mere lakelets; and at a period when the whole neighbouring country was one mass of wood these inland loughs served as tolerably secure retreats. At the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland castles on terra firma seem to have been but lightly esteemed by the northern chieftains, for the conqueror of Ulster had erected many strongholds to secure the subjugated territory, more especially in the country of Mac Mahon, who “with solemn protestations vowed to become a true and faithful subject, whereupon de Courcy gave him two castles with their demeanes to hold of him. Within one month after this Mac Mahon brake down the castles, and made them even with the ground. Sir John de Courcy sent unto him to know the cause: his answer was, that he promised not to hold stones of him, but the land.” Later on one Thomas Pettiplace, in answer to an inquiry from the Government as to what castles or forts O’Neil was possessed of, in a letter of the 15th May, 1567, states:--“For castles I think it be not unknown unto yr honors he trusteth no points thereunto for his safety, as appeareth by the raising (_razing_) of the strongest castles of all his countries, and that fortification that he only dependeth upon _is in sartin ffreshwater loghes_ in his country, which from the sea there come neither ship nor boat to approach them; it is thought that there in ye said _fortified islands_ lyeth all his plate, wch is much, and money, prisoners, and gages, wch islands hath in wars before been attempted, and now of late again by ye Lord Deputy Sr Harry Sydney, wch, for want of means for safe conduct upon ye water, it hath not prevailed.” Of the unsuccessful attack on the crannog or stockaded island, to which allusion is thus made, the account forwarded by Sir Henry Sydney to Elizabeth, dated Drogheda, 12th November, 1566, is here given:--“On Thursday, the 17th of the last September, I, your Highness’ Deputy, accompanied with the Earl of Kildare, the Marshal Francis Agarnde and Jaques Wingefelde, with the rest of the captains and soldiers of your Highness’ army--each man in his calling as willing to serve your Majesty as ever I saw men--issued out of this town of Drogheda, and encamped in the confines of the English Pale and O’Hanlon’s country, at a place called Roskeaghe, where we were forced to remain, for sundry necessary things not come as then out of the English Pale, four nights. So, on the 21st of the same month, we removed and marched towards Ardmach, and in the way, having occasion to encamp hard by a logh, in which was an island, and in the same, by universal opinion and report of divers of that country, a great quantity of the rebels’ goods and victuals kept, only without guns, as it was thought, not greatly strong as it seemed, being but hedged about, and the distance from the main not being passed five-score yards, the army coming timely to the camp, divers soldiers were very desirous to attempt the winning of it, which was granted to them, I the Deputy making choice only of such as could swim; nevertheless there was prepared for them a bridge which floated upon barrels, whereupon they went but disorderly, for many more went than were appointed, among whom Edward Vaughan, a gentleman of Wales, who being none of the army, but come over to serve this journey, as many more gentlemen and others of that country and the marches of the same did, was one who, unwitting to me your Highness’ Deputy, being gone from the place where the bridge did lie, to stay the shot of the army, least they should hurt their followers, with divers others not appointed, stepped upon the bridge and rowed away, which overcharge of men caused the bridge more to sink than else it would, and yet not so much but that it floated still and carried them over, but in such sort as the fireworks conveyed with them miscarried, so they were able therewith to do nothing. They found the place better manned than it was thought, and they of better courage than before that time the like men had ever shewed themselves in the like place. They found the hedge so bearded with stakes and other sharp wood, as it was not without extreme difficulty scaleable, and so ramparted as if the hedge had been burned--for doing whereof the fireworks failed--without a long time it was not to be digged down. Yet some scaled to the top, whereof Edward Vaughan was one, who being pushed with a pike from the same, fell between the hedge and the bridge, and being heavily armed--albeit he could swim perfect well--was drowned, and two others hurt upon the rampart and drowned; one other slain upon the bridge with a shot; a man of mine, the Deputy, slain upon the main with a shot; and Anthony Deringe, a servant of the Earl of Leycester’s, stricken through the thigh without perishing any bone, and is perfectly recovered; the rest, unhurt, returned upon the bridge to the land. We write of this trifle thus largely to your Most Excellent Majesty least some malice or ignorance might inform the same contrary to the truth; and as many of us as were at the journey by these our letters affirm this to be the truth, and the whole truth, of that fact.”

Extracts that here follow, from notices of crannogs contained in native annals,[160] trace back their existence in Ireland during a period of over a thousand years from the seventeenth century.

After the surrender of Charlemont, Sir Phelim O’Neil “retired to a fortified island called _Raghan_ (? Roughan) _Isle_, and was there captured in February, 1653, by William Lord Charlemont.”[161]

A small lake situated somewhat to the north-west of the village of Desertmartin has given title to the barony of Loughinsholin, lying south of the city of Londonderry; it was so named from _Inis Ua Fhloinne_ (O’Lynn’s Island), a stockaded dwelling near its eastern margin. The lake itself is now known as Lough Shillen. The oak piling that formerly surrounded the island was removed for firewood, leaving a mere bank covered with reeds and low bushes. In Father O’Mellan’s Journal (written in Irish) of the rebellion of 1642, he mentions two attacks on the island by the English, in the years 1642, 1643; and again in 1645, its final abandonment and destruction by fire on the part of the Irish, owing to inability to hold out from want of provisions. He states that on the “27th April, 1642, the Coleraine detachment (_i.e._ the English) came upon Cormac O’Neill, son of Fedhlim Oge, at Rayleagh, and robbed and killed his people, namely the Clann William; thence they proceeded to _Lough-inis-olyn_, and to Moneymore, until the two forces were near one another. They collected a great deal of spoil, and the creaghts fled to Dungannon. After plundering far and near, the English returned to Lough-inis-olyn. They sent Rory Ballagh O’Mellan to demand the island from Shane O’Hagan, son of John, son of Edmond Oge. It was refused them. They then fired three shots from a cannon, which they had with them, and departed from the place, returning to their homes laden with spoil.”

Again, on “August 25, 1643, Inis-O’Luin was garrisoned by Shane O’Hagan. The enemy came and called on them to surrender, which they refused to do. They then stopped up a stream which ran out of the lake, and turned the course of another into it, so that they contrived to flood the island. The garrison kept watch in the island house, and one of their men was killed by a cannon ball while on watch. However, they refused to surrender the island on any terms. One man in attempting to swim away had his legs broken. The enemy at length departed.” The latest entry occurs under date 7th March, 1645, when “The people of O’Hagan burned Inis-O’Lynn, for want of provisions, and followed the general eastwards.”[162]

The crannog of _Mac Navin_,[163] county Galway, was taken in the year 1610; it is previously mentioned under date 1601. G. H. Kinahan, who searched for but could find no trace of this crannog, imagined its site must have been somewhere in the large alluvial flat and bog that extends south of the townland of Crannagh, in the parish of Tynagh, county Galway. This supposed site lies about four miles E.N.E. of the crannog of Ballinlough. The difficulty experienced in identifying the site is the more remarkable as the descendants of the sept of Mac Navin still reside in the locality, and the crannog was inhabited up to a very late period.[164] In 1603, after the subjugation of Leitrim by the Crown, “O’Rourke was obliged to remain with a small force in the woods, in the remote glens and on the islands in the lakes in his country;” whilst the same year Hugh Boy O’Donnell was conveyed by his adherents to the retirement of a crannog, to be healed of his wounds. This retreat, called “_Crannog-na-n-Duini_, in Ross Guill, in the Tuathas,” was situated in the parish of Mevagh, county Donegal, between Redhaven and Sheephaven. In 1599 the crannog of _Lough Gur_, county Limerick, was taken from the “Queen’s people” by the Earl of Desmond, then in rebellion against Elizabeth. Sir George Carew relates that the Lord President of Munster, who reconnoitred the crannog for the purpose of its recapture in the following year, _i.e._ 1600, observed two small islets (the crannogs) and one large island; this latter “he found to be a place of exceeding strength, by reason that it was an island encompassed with a deep lough, the breadth thereof being, in the narrowest place, a caliver’s shot over. Upon one side thereof standeth a very strong castle, which at this time was manned with a good garrison, for there was within the island John Fitz Thomas with two hundred men at the least.”[165] “After much parade in the preparation of ordnance to reduce Lough Gur, its surrender was purchased for sixty pounds from Owen Grome, who had been entrusted with its defence.”[166] There yet lingers here “the reflex of a legend past,” for it is supposed that beneath the waters of the lake lie enchanted the grand old castle of the Desmonds, the great earl himself, his beautiful countess, and all the retinue that surrounded him in the days of his splendour. “In one of the lakes is a small island, rocky and wooded, which is believed by the peasantry to represent the top of the highest tower of the castle, which sank under a spell to the bottom.”[167]

In a plan-drawing of the siege of Enniskillen castle, in the year 1592, the remains of a crannog appear in the river close to the castle, where seemingly a circle of stakes encloses a diminutive island.[168] The survey or maps of the county Monaghan, made by one Francis Jobson in 1590, though meagre, and certainly--as its designer expresses in an apologetic note to Burghley--“nothing perfect,” is nevertheless highly interesting by reason of the rude sketches of the water-laved abodes of the chiefs of Monaghan. Each barony possessed one, designated “the island”; that in Farney was at _Lisanisk_, written _Lysonske_, and it is marked on the map as “The Island, Ever M’Cooley’s house.” In the year 1843 traces of this structure were discovered; the former artificial island was then a peninsula, having been joined to the shore. Seven feet below the surface of the ground, and two feet below the water level, a double row of piles was disclosed, formed of young trees with the bark still adhering, and from six to twelve inches in diameter; the area thus enclosed was an oval sixty feet by forty-two feet.[169] In Jobson’s map several crannogs are represented in _Lough Mucknoe_, barony of Cremorne; also “Mac Mahoun’s house,” or crannog, is shown in _Lough Monnachin_. According to the same authority, a sub-chief of the present county Monaghan, named Mac Kenna, resided in a crannog either on the lake of _Glaslough_ or that of _Erny_ in the parish of Donagh. The map is so rough that it is difficult to decide which of the lakes is intended. Francis Jobson likewise represents the residence of a chieftain named Brian Mahon, as a crannog on _Lough Rouskey_, in the parish of Killeevan. In 1588 Aedh O’Donnell and nine of his followers were murdered in the crannog of _Mongavlin_, parish of Taughboyne, county Donegal. “The crannog is not now traceable, nor is there any water in the locality in which such a structure could have existed, with the exception of Lough Foyle, on the margin of which Mongavlin is situated.”[170] In 1571 the Mac Dermots burned _Inis-Floinn_ and _Inis-Mic-David_,[171] situated somewhere on the borders of Roscommon and Sligo. The statement that the islands were burned seems to sufficiently demonstrate their artificial character. In the sixteenth century the island fortress of _Inishrush_ was held by an Irish sub-chief named Brian Carragh; and Dr. Reeves quotes a document from the State Paper Office, in which allusion is made to it in the form of a letter to a Captain Piers, dated 10th December, 1566. The writer says:--“Als mony as we migt drywe and dreaf ower ye Ban all ye carycht yt Brean Karriche hade … and ane innyse (i.e. _Island_, namely _Inishrush_), yt Brean Karriche hade of befair and Oneiles servand tuk yt, and now we have gotten ye innys agane, and that harchips I behuffit to Sla yame to be meet to my arme.” The crannog of Inishrush (_i. e._ the island of the wood), or perhaps, peninsula, has long ceased to bear that name. It is a small island in the middle of a marshy basin called Green Lough, in the townland of Inishrush, barony of Loughinsholin, county Derry. Some years ago this marsh was a sheet of water about half a mile in circumference, the drainage of which was effected by means of a deep cut that carried its contents into the Clady river. About the centre of the lakelet was a circular artificial mound composed of clay and gravel, the sides gradually shelving downwards. It was girt with a circle--about one hundred and fifty feet in circumference--of oak piles, most of them still in position. Horizontal beams of oak were mortised in the upper ends, and upon this framework rested seemingly the foundation of a wooden house securely attached to the supporting timbers. An artificial causeway, leading from the western margin of the lough, appears to have formerly connected the crannog with terra firma. The sole discovery made was a fragment of chain-armour. The lake basin became again partly submerged owing to neglect of the drainage, and when Dr. Reeves visited the locality in 1859, he failed to reach the crannog. It remained, however, above water, prominently covered with a luxuriant growth of grass.[172]

In 1560 O’Rourke was drowned “whilst going to sleep on a low sequestered crannog in _Muinter Eolius_,” county Leitrim. Under heading of the year 1544, crannogs in the county Antrim are referred to in the _Annals of the Four Masters_:--“O’Donnell marched with a force into the Routes, and took (i.) _Inis-an-Lochain_, on which was a wooden castle and an impregnable fortress in the possession of Mac Quillan; and after O’Donnell had taken the castle he gave the castle to O’Kane. On the same expedition O’Donnell took the castle of (ii.) _Baile-an-locha_, and he found much property, consisting of arms, armour, brass, iron, butter and provisions, in those castles. O’Donnell also took after that (iii.) _Inis-locha-Burrann_, and (iv.) _Inis-locha-Leithinnsi_, in which he likewise found much property.” (i.) _Inis-an-Lochain_ (_i. e._ the island of the little lake) lies in the river Bann, about a mile and a-half to the south of Coleraine. It is now called Loughan Island. The crannog had been erected, or perhaps, _re_-erected in 1170. (ii.) _Baile-an-locha_ (_i. e._ the village of the lake), anglicised Ballylough, and (iv.) _Locha-Leithinnsi_ (_i. e._ the lake of the half island), now known as Lough Lynch, are both situated in the parish of Billy. Lough Lynch originally covered about twenty acres, but has been drained, and the former island is now accessible by dry land. This crannog “is shown as the birthplace of Colkitto, a chief who figured in Montrose’s wars,” and who has found a place in Sir Walter Scott’s “Legend of Montrose,” as well as in one of Milton’s sonnets, written on the critics who cut up the title of his book “Tetrachordon:”--

“‘Bless us! what a word on
A title-page is this!’ And some in file
Stand spelling false, while one might walk to Mile-
End Green. ‘Why, it is harder, sirs, than Gordon,
Colkitto, or Mac Donnel, or Galasp.’
These rugged names to our like mouths grow sleek
That would have made Quintillian stare and gasp.”

Colkitto’s real name was Alexander Mac Donnell, a relative of the Earl of Antrim. (iii.) _Inis-locha-Burrann_ was situated in the parish of Ballintoy; the lake is now drained, and the place known by the name of Loughavarra.[173]

In 1541 the eastern crannog in the lake of Glencar, on the borders of Sligo and Leitrim, was taken by one sept of the O’Rourkes from another. Shortly afterwards the dispossessed proprietor attempted to set fire to the “fortress,” but was discovered, pursued by boats, taken prisoner, and hanged. In the summer of 1540, O’Donnell besieged the crannog of _Loch Betha_, now Lough Veagh, county Donegal. He encamped round the lake shores, but failed to take the stronghold. In the autumn he, however, defeated his opponents, and “broke up and completely demolished the crannog.” Previous mention is made of it as the scene of strife in the year 1524, when Eoghan O’Donnell took Niall O’Donnell’s “town” (_i.e._ the crannog of Loch Betha); whilst in 1257 O’Donnell was confined to this crannog during twelve months from wounds received in a battle near Sligo. In 1512 the crannog of Mac Gauran was taken by Mac Guire. In 1495 Mac Gauran, a chief of Tallaghaw, in the present county Cavan, was drowned in _Loch Crannoige_ of _Coill-an-mhuilinn_ (_i. e._ Lake Crannog of the Wood of the Mill), now Ballywillen Lough. In 1477 a violent tempest swept over Ireland which did great damage, especially to crannogs. Had these structures not been very numerous, the chroniclers would scarcely have drawn special attention to the havoc thus wrought. In 1455 Torlogh Mac Guire took and plundered the crannog of Mac Clancy on Lough Melvin, county Leitrim. In 1452 O’Hanley was murdered by his own tribe in the crannog of _Loch-Leisi_ (stated by O’Donovan to be now called Muckenagh Lough), in the parish of Kilmeam, county Roscommon; whilst in 1246 it is of record that O’Conor made his escape when a prisoner from the same lake-dwelling, after drowning his guards. In 1368 an O’Conor was taken prisoner in the crannog of _Ardakillen_, parish of Killukin, county Roscommon, and in 1388 another O’Conor burned this crannog and the Island of _Loch-Cairgin_ (_i. e._ Cargin’s Lough[174]), near Tulsk in the same county. In 1365 Brian Mac Mahon, chief of Oriel, invited his father-in-law to a banquet, where he made him prisoner, and “put him in a lake to conceal him”[175]--evidently meaning his confinement in a crannog--for Mac Geoghegan states that the captive was committed “to a strong place on a lough to be kept.” In 1247 Mac Costello took and garrisoned the crannog of _Cloonloch_ (now Lough Clean), county Leitrim, and expelled the proprietor, Mac Rannall, who, however, succeeded in recapturing his stronghold.

In 1223 William de Lacy, one of the great Anglo-Norman settlers in Ireland erected “the crannog of _Inis-Laodhachain_, and the Connacht men entered forcibly upon it, and let out on parole the people who were in it.” This erection of a lake-dwelling by a Norman baron is an instance of the habit laid to the charge of many of the English, of forsaking their own language and usages, and of living according to the manner of the Irish amongst whom they dwelt. “The names _Inis-Laodhachain_ and _Loch-Laodhachain_ are now obsolete.” In 1220 “Walter de Laci came to Erinn, and performed a great hosting to the crannog of O’Raighilligh.[176] He went upon it and obtained hostages and great power.” The crannog here referred to “appears to have been situated in Lough Oughter, county Cavan, where the old castle of Cloch-Uachtair (or Cloch-Oughter) now stands. In a letter from Guy de Chatillon to Henry III., dated July, 1224, Grennoch Oraely (as the name is therein written) is stated to have been captured from William de Lacy by Oraely, Walter de Riddelsford, and Richard Tuit, on the same day on which the castle of Kilmore (county Cavan) was taken, from which it appears to have been in the neighbourhood.”

There is evidence that some crannogs were constructed by the Northmen, for in 1170 the chief of a small territory in the barony and county Monaghan “was killed by the men of a fleet which came from the Orkneys, in the island which had been constructed by themselves in _Loch-Ruidhe_, i. e. Inis-Lachain.” There is no lake in Ireland now known by that name; but to the south of Coleraine there is a small island in the river Bann called “the Loughan,” which bears all the appearance of having been artificially constructed.[177] In 1150 an Irish chief was killed “on the island of _Loch-Laighaire_.” This crannog lay in the country of the “_Sliocht O’Neills_,” and, as appears from subsequent references, was situated to the south of Lifford, in the barony of Clogher, county Tyrone, and was the residence of that branch of the O’Neills. It is written _Loch-Laoghaire_ and _Loch-Laighaire_, i. e. Leary’s Lake, said to have been so called from “Leary the Victorious,” one of the heroes of the Red Branch Knights of Ulster, in the first century; but for nearly two hundred years it has been generally known under the designation _Corcreevy_, i. e. wooded hill. In 1845, when the water had been drained off, the crannog was here discovered. There are several allusions to it in the Irish Annals. In 1325 “O’Donnell, the son of Brian O’Neill, Lord of Tyrone, died at Loch-Laighaire. In 1431 Nachtan O’Donnell went to assault the castle of Loch-Laighaire, and took it from Turlough O’Donnell, and all the spoils that were in it he carried off.” In 1436 the crannog had been seized by the O’Neills, when some of the same sept summoned Mac Guire to their assistance and “commenced constructing boats to go to the crannog, but the sons of Bryan, who were then in the crannog, came to the resolution of delivering it up.” In 1500 Hugh Roe O’Donnell “burned the crannog of Loch-Laighaire;” whilst in 1509 there is a notice of a fight between two septs of the O’Neills on the shores of the lake.

In 1025, it is stated in the _Annals of Loch Cé_, that a predatory expedition was made by the inhabitants of Fermanagh, on which occasion they burned the crannog on _Loch-n-Uaithne_ (Lough Ooney), “and slew seventeen men on the margin of the lake.” Lough Ooney lies in the county Monaghan, in the barony of Dartry, the chiefs of which territory had their principal residence on this lake, whence they were sometimes designated “Lords of Loch-n-Uaithne.”

In the enumeration of various kinds of fortresses repaired by Brian Borumha, crannogs are included, as recorded in a well-known Irish ms. entitled “The Wars of the Gaedhiel with the Gaill.” In it mention is made of four crannogs, one being near Knockany, county Limerick, and situated in _Lough Cend_, now drained; also the celebrated crannog in _Lough Gur_, in the same county. The site of the crannog of _Loch Saiglend_ has not been identified;[178] the site of _Inis-an-ghaill-duibh_ (_i. e._ the island of the black foreigner or Dane,[179]) is unknown, or at least uncertain; however, in the Dublin copy of the _Annals of Innisfallen_, under date 1016, it is stated to have been situated in the river Shannon. We learn that in some of his numerous conflicts with the Danes, Brian Borumha pillaged various _islands_ in the Shannon, where the invaders had placed their women and children for safety, as well as their treasure, as “there was much gold and other wealth in these islands and fortifications.” In 990 a violent tempest “sunk the island of _Lough Cimbe_ (now Lough Hackett) suddenly, _dreach_ and rampart, _i. e._ thirty feet;” this crannog was afterwards rebuilt by Brian Borumha.

With the Danes, the struggle in Ireland between invaders and invaded was carried on as much in the lakes and rivers as on terra firma. Of the importance attached to crannogs during this contest many instances might be given, but a few will here suffice. In 984 “the islands of Connaught were destroyed by these marauders.” In 933 the crannog of _Lagore_ in Meath was burnt by them; whilst in 848 they fired and dismantled it. Lagore being the residence of one of the principal chiefs of Meath, frequent notices of it appear in the annals, where it is written _Loch-Gabhar_. “_Gabhur_” is an ancient Irish and British word for a horse, and accordingly the name _Loch-gabhra_, which occurs in the life of St. Aidus, is translated _Stagnum-equi_, the lake of the horse,[180] now euphonized “Lagore.” In 967 Beollán, “king” of this place, died; in 907 Maelogra, also “king” of Lagore, was slain; whilst in 868 the son of Edirscel, “king” of Lagore, fell fighting against the Danes. In 865 Tighernach, “king” of Lagore and “half-king” of Meath, died; and in 856 Cinaedh, chief of the present baronies of Upper and Lower Duleek, in Meath, in alliance with the Danes, “spoiled the islands” of Lagore. This entry is of great importance, as it points to the probability of the site of another crannog or crannogs in close proximity to the celebrated historical stronghold dug out of its peaty covering in 1847, and which as early as A.D. 673, must have been of importance, for in that year a considerable battle took place on the shores of the lake. In 927 and 928 the Danes plundered “the islands of Lough Neagh,” and in 922 the same fate befel “the islands of Lough Rea.”

In 847 “the island of _Inis-Muinremhar_,” in Lough Ramor, county Cavan, was “demolished by the inhabitants of Leyney, county Sligo, and Gallen, county Mayo, who were plundering the territories after the manner of the Gentiles.”[181] In 636 a chieftain named Maelduin was burned to death in “the island” of _Inishkeen_, county Louth, on the borders of Monaghan,[182] and in the same year mention is made in the _Annals of the Four Masters_ of “a lake in which a crannog was built, situated in Oriel (but not now known), called _Loch-da-damh_, the lake of the two oxen.”[183]

There is an ancient poem in Irish,[184] attributed to St. Columbkille, which commences--

“Alone am I on the mountain.”

The Saint is flying from his enemies after the order of banishment from Erin had been issued against him: he subsequently exclaims--

“Though even in a church, the reprobates are slain;
Though _in an island, in the middle of a lake_,
The fortunate of this life are protected,
While in the very front of battle
No one can slay me.”

A well-known Irish scholar, the Rev. Canon Bourke, gives the following translation of the same passage:--

“If by six thousand I was guarded,
Or placed _in islet in a lake_,
Or in a fortress strong protected,
Or in a church my refuge take,
Still God would guard His own with care;
And even in battle safe they fare.
No man can slay me till the day
When God shall take my life away.”

There is said to be an ancient _Life of St. Patrick_ which contains a notice of one of those dwellings; and in a translation into English of an ancient Irish ms., the “Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grainne”--two characters belonging to the earliest, indeed generally supposed mythic, period of Irish history--Fionn and Diarmuid are represented as addressing each other, and the one calls to mind that Miodhach the son of Colgan, “had a Bruighean upon land, and a Bruighean _upon the wave_” (_i. e._ an island). The word Bruighean means a palace. The island upon which this structure stood was, according to the text, situated upon the Shannon, and was approached by a “ford.”

Thus can be clearly traced a continuous historical occupancy of these structures until all written record of them ceases, and their origin is lost in the mists of antiquity: enough proof has been advanced to show that crannogs existed, as may be fairly surmised, from the first colonization of Erin. In the most diverse climates “water towns” seem to have sprung up independently, by virtue of the natural laws which govern man’s action in a semi-civilized state--

“Facies non omnibus una
Nec diversa tamen, qualis decet esse sororum.”

The continuance in Ireland of this very primitive form of habitation was doubtless prolonged in consequence of the restless internecine feuds and generally unsettled state of the country. However, the “silver streak” around the island homes of Ireland’s early inhabitants was not always a secure barrier; during severe winters, when the water was sufficiently frozen, it no longer presented an obstacle, but on the contrary was of considerable assistance to marauders. In the native chronicles most notices of crannogs are connected with scenes of strife, the island of the weaker party being usually given to the flames. A disturbed state of society up to a very late period was also characteristic of the sister kingdom of Scotland, and the antiquarian and poetical genius of Sir Walter Scott brings the feuds of the past before the eyes of the modern reader. The scene wherein the Lowlanders or Saxons fruitlessly essay to reach the island on Loch Katrine, where the Highlanders or Celts had placed their women, children, and goods for safety, had most probably its foundation in some real occurrence. In his _History of the Rise of the Dutch Republic_, Motley traces the gradual development of what is now the kingdom of Holland, from a race of ichthyophagi who dwelt upon mounds which they raised like beavers above the almost fluid soil, but whether there ever was in Erin a period purely lacustrine, or to what extent villages on terra firma may have co-existed, is a problem that will most probably never be solved. From careful examination, however, of the “finds” in lake dwellings, the conclusion may be drawn that civilization in Ireland, from the earliest dawn, has been on the whole steadily progressive, for

“… I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs,
And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns.”

There is something in the continuity of these successive ages that may be considered analogous to the connecting links of a chain. The Palaeolithic, or rude stone period; the Neolithic, or polished stone age, as well as the Bronze age, in all probability overlapped more, and had a longer continuance, than elsewhere in Europe. But the mere fact of the discovery of stone implements, particularly as in Ireland, in a stone-producing country, is not necessarily proof of a barbarous state of society, for, as remarked by the Duke of Argyll, the remains of the first Chaldean monarchy plainly demonstrate that a high state of civilization co-existed with the use of stone implements of a very rude character.

END OF PART I.

LAKE DWELLINGS.