The Lake Dwellings of Ireland: Or ancient lacustrine habitations of Erin, commonly called crannogs.Wood-Martin, W. G. (William Gregory)
History
The Lake Dwellings of Ireland: Or ancient lacustrine habitations of Erin, commonly called crannogs.
Wood-Martin, W. G. (William Gregory)
Lake-dwellers and lake-dwellings -- Ireland
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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