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
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
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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