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
_Drumkeery Lough_ is situated two and a-half miles north of
Bailieborough. In 1863 the level of this lake having been lowered,
the fact became apparent that it had been, in olden times, the abode
of a lacustrine population. Plate XLVIII., fig. 206, shows the former
extent and shape of the lake. Near its southern margin there was
an oval-shaped island, converted into a peninsula by the change in
the water-level. The aspect of the locality is described, and also
represented in an outline sketch, by Professor Harkness, the original
island being shown (plate XLVIII., fig. 207) by the portion marked
A, including the area B, while the present peninsula is indicated
by the letters CCC. The crannog was situated on the peninsula, and
the approach to it had been from the south, as indicated by remains
of a stockade of birch piles, DD, extending from both sides of the
entrance, whilst at the eastern corner of the latter was a large
oak pile with a four-sided hole cut through it. Large vertical oak
slabs, with interspaces of three feet between each pile, formed the
sides of the entrance EE, the interspaces filled in with smaller
slabs of oak inclined outwards; the strong vertical piles had been
well secured; on examination it was found that about nine feet of
their length lay below the then surface. The floor of the entrance F
was formed of large flat stones, and underlying this rude pavement
were pieces of cleft oak. The area occupied by the crannog was an
Irish acre--the longer axis being nearly north and south--and it was
enclosed by piling composed principally of birch, retaining the bark.
These birch poles, on the end inserted into the ground, had usually
a wedge-shaped outline; some of the smaller trees seem to have been
cut down by a single blow, and driven into the ground without further
sharpening. Piles of oak which also occurred in the crannog were much
better pointed, tapering regularly in some cases from their extremity
for four feet upwards. Round oak piles were found in several parts of
the stockade; whilst cleft oak was observed only at the entrance
in one or two parts of the stockade, and in single piles here and
there in the crannog. It has been computed that the number of piles
used in forming and strengthening the construction must have exceeded
30,000. The stockade was composed of piles placed in close contiguity,
without interspaces; and in the interior, near the piling, there was
a layer of gravelly clay and large stones, varying from two inches to
two feet in thickness, its object being to give a uniform level; and
this comparatively narrow space was the only artificially elevated
portion of surface in the crannog, which differed from most others
previously met with in Ireland, in apparently not having required to
be raised above the water; but there is evidence of the level having
risen five and a-half feet since the period of its occupation. At the
northern extremity of what had been the crannog was a space about a
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