In the comparison of Irish and Gaulish names by Professor Adolph. Picket[154] is found the Celtic name “Balanan” (Balanu), which seems very like that on the stone. At the thicker end of this stone, just before the commencement of the Ogham, a slightly-marked cross of peculiar form may be traced;[155] and the accompanying illustration represents, full size, a fragment of an ornamented stone, from Ardakillen, inscribed with Ogham-like scores.

Money.—The precious metals, shaped for purposes of traffic, at once stamp crannog “finds” with a modern, or at least with an historic date. Very few coins, however, have come to light; the most numerous are of the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth, some of them being forgeries. In the crannog of Cloonfinlough the coins varied in date from one of the Emperor Hadrian to a specimen of the brass money of James II. One coin was discovered under such strange circumstances that it claims special mention:—In the lake adjoining the glebe house, in the parish of Aghnamullen, county Monaghan, there are two islands, and about the year 1850 one of them was for the first time ploughed, and many curious antiquities turned up. In 1863, the rector then in possession, while seated on the island, and peering into the water, observed what to him appeared a button on the leaf of a water-plant growing up from the bottom of the lake; on pulling the leaf, this proved, however, to be an ancient coin—a half groat of the reign of Edward III. The natural growth of the aqueous vegetation had thus lifted to the surface of the lough some of its buried treasures.[156]

Strange as is this incident, it is surpassed by one related in connexion with the discovery of a silver penny of King John. It appears that upon preparing a fish of the bream species, taken in Dalkey Sound, the coin referred to was found in its stomach, and as it is on record that some time during the reign of John, a ship containing a large sum of money was sunk close to the place where the fish was captured, it is but reasonable to suppose that the coin in question had formed a portion of the lost treasure.

Horse Furniture.—At Ballinacarriga, near Moate, county Westmeath, the peaty mould of a lake, now almost dried up, has at various times yielded numerous objects of interest. One of them (plate XXXI.) is thus described by Alderman Day, F.S.A.:—“It somewhat resembles in shape the wooden forepart of a cavalry saddle of the present day, but here the likeness ends; this piece of horse furniture is covered with interlaced knot-work of the choicest kind, similar to the well-known ornamentation upon our ancient Irish crosses. The timber composing it is yew, which fortunately was preserved by being deposited in the peaty mould of the lake bottom. The centre of the pommel is pierced by a very Moorish-looking horse-shoe ornament, and both sides of the timber are carved in compartments, no two of which are alike in their filling up of scroll and net-work. Even the top of the pommel, of both near and off side, differs in the pattern of the ornament. The points of the pommel at both sides are pierced with two holes, where the mark of the fong is apparent, by which the forepart was secured to the lateral boards which formed the seat of the saddle, and both points are grooved for the reception of these boards.” Bridle-bits, or cheek-pieces, were discovered in Loughran Island, in the river Bann: of these, one is quite plain, and the other remarkably slender; it measures 6 inches across—the two metal rein-straps still remain on the posterior loop. The third, fig. 184, represents a fragment merely, of one that had borne ornamentation.

Fig. 185 represents cheek-pieces from the crannog of Lough Faughan, and from Ardakillen. The bit proper, by which cheek-pieces of this class were connected, appears to have been almost invariably composed of iron. A perfect specimen with bronze mountings is represented in Shirley’s History of County Monaghan. An example of the iron bit which is supposed to have succeeded that composed of bronze and iron is here given. It came from Lagore, as did also several flat pieces of iron, which there is reason to believe had been attached as ornaments to some article of horse trapping. They measure 3 inches or so in length, by about ¾ of an inch in breadth, and are most curiously decorated in enamel of various colours, the patterns being geometrical interlacing figures in the style known as Opus Hibernicum; at the time of their discovery, they presented the only examples of enamel on iron which had then been noticed, and some of them may now be seen in the Petrie Collection of the Museum, R. I. A. It is not known when enamel was first used in Ireland. Some writers refer its invention to the Gauls, on the authority of a passage from Philostratus (who lived about the commencement of the third century), to the effect that the barbarians bordering on the ocean knew how to spread colours upon hot metal so as to become on the cooling of the material as hard as the substance over which they were laid. Fig. 187 represents a small plate of iron, covered with a rich pattern in enamel—vermilion, yellow, and black; and fig. 188 is an ornament of mixed metal supposed, like the preceding, to belong to a piece of horse furniture: it is inlaid with red, brown, and yellow enamel, and “exhibits also specimens of a remarkable glass-mosaic in chequered work of blue and white, encrusted in cavities chiselled out on the face of the metal. This kind of ornament is found occasionally on ancient Irish works in metal, it bears much resemblance to some antique ornaments discovered with Roman remains, and it occurs on the curious bronze basin found in the bed of the river Witham near Lincoln.”

Miscellaneous Articles.—It would be impossible to classify all the articles brought to light on lacustrine sites; indeed the use to which some of them were, or could be, applied must now be purely conjectural, so widely do the habits of life in the present advanced state of society differ from the rude and primitive existence of the lake dweller. To the representation of objects, whose use could not now be defined with any degree of accuracy, have been added—since the work went to press—a few plates of miscellaneous articles that fell under the writer’s observation in the interval. They are of interest, as throwing still further light on the details of the lake dwellers’ ordinary pursuits.

Amongst the debris of crannogs have been found several designs carved upon the polished surface of the larger bones of mammalia. Sir W. Wilde observed that clear, sharp, and accurate impressions might be made from some of these carvings in the same way that proofs are taken from a woodcut. In some instances the pattern is elaborately finished, and would answer equally well “as a design for the panel of a stone cross, the decoration of a doorway, or cornice of a round tower, a compartment of a brooch pin, the capital of an early ecclesiastical archway, the illumination of a MS., or the graving of a piece of warlike furniture.” An example of this kind of decoration is shown on plate XXXII., fig. 1; it is the leg bone of a deer, 8½ inches long, highly polished, and covered with carvings; its precise use is as yet conjectural. Figs. 3, 4, 5, are fac-similes of the embossed patterns on this bone.

Another carved leg bone of a deer (plate XXXII.), fig. 2, is stained a dark brown colour, probably by lying in peat; its polished surface shows how much it had been handled. Upon the surface of this bone there are various devices traced with a graver or other sharp tool. Figs. 6, 7, 8, 9, represent these (full size), and figs. 10, 11, 12, are characteristic of Celtic animal ornamentation.

In the Museum, R. I. A., there are eight thin plates of bone, varying in length from 1 to 5½ inches; they are of every variety of shape—square, triangular, irregular, but the majority oblong. In some respects they resemble in form, size, and ornamentation, the class of small stone articles supposed to have served as toys, amulets, or in some kind of game. According to Wilde, however, their more probable use was either for the decoration of small caskets, or for dress fasteners. They are generally perforated in several places, and the foregoing illustrations display great variety of outline. Their outer surface, smooth and convex, was more or less decorated with a number of circular indentations and dotted lines. Most of the specimens were found in the crannogs of Ballinderry and Ardakillen.

Spoons formed of thin cuticular horn are not of unusual occurrence. The specimen represented, fig. 194, is one of two such articles found in the crannog of Clooneygonnel, and shaped out of the concave epiphyses, or joint surfaces of the vertebræ of some large mammal. A wooden handle had probably been originally attached to it.[157] Fig. 195, from Ballinderry, is a curious, rudely formed object of bone, perforated with four holes; its use unknown.[158]

Plates XXXIII. and XXXIV. contain representations of miscellaneous crannog “finds” from Randalstown and Lough Guile, county Antrim, and Ballykinler, county Down: when not otherwise specified the articles are from the first-named locality. Plate XXXIII., 1, a piece of pottery (¼ size) that seems to have formed part of an earthen vessel; it is coarse, strong, well made, and graceful in design; other fragments were met with, and judging from the appearance of fire on the outside of one, it had been used for cooking purposes. 2. A remarkable object of granite (½ size); two of similar form were found at Ballykinler crannog. 3. A paddle or oar made of oak, its length 3 feet 7 inches by 4½ inches in breadth. 4. A wooden scoop; total length 12 inches, the handle 4 inches, thickness 1½. 5. A wooden vessel found with a canoe; its diameter 7 inches, depth 3, and thickness 1 inch; it would be adapted for baling out a boat. 6 seems to be a netting needle (½ size); it is made of iron. 7. A battle-axe; length from face to end of projection at back 7 inches, length of face 5½ inches, breadth 1 inch at the one end, and at the other 1½ inches. 8. Iron sock of a plough; length 7½ inches, greatest breadth 4 inches; it terminates in a point.

The following objects are all drawn one-half size:—9. A knife, the only specimen met with at Ballykinler crannog, having a handle. The haft is of goat’s horn, and the blade like a penknife of large size; it does not seem applicable to any ordinary domestic purpose, but it may have been used for bleeding or operating on animals. 10. A wooden instrument—of which two were found—made of soft, long-grained wood of the pine kind; they might have been used for coarse knitting. 11. An instrument of similar wood, use unknown. 12. There were several like No. 12, formed of soft wood; they might have served as fastenings for mantle or hair. 13. An instrument of bone, neatly made and polished, which might have been used as a pin. 14. A pin, made of a close-grained, hard, white wood, probably holly; several of these were brought to light. 15. An article of iron, use unknown. 16. A pin of iron; several of these were found. 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, are pins of bronze. There were a great number resembling No. 17, also several of No. 19. 24. A large button made of bronze; the eyes are not fastened in but cast. 25. A crucible, seemingly of foreign manufacture, and unused; but several were met with greatly calcined. 26, 27, 28, seem to be fastenings for leather or other garments; they are of very thin bronze. 29 is a comb made of bone and riveted with iron (found at Ballykinler crannog).

Plate XXXIV., 1, is a pointed and socketed iron instrument from Ballymena. 2, drawn about half-size, is evidently a lamp of late, or perhaps mediæval form, composed of iron, and the workmanship good; it had an upright handle pierced by an oblong hole, with another hole in a projection at end of handle. A gentleman saw a lamp of this class in use near Carrickfergus in the year 1840, as also in the islands off the coast of Ulster. 3 is a canoe paddle made of oak, and about 3 feet in length; 4 is of stone, and was found in a crannog in the county Down; 5 is a “spindle-whorl” (so called) made of jet, and having indentations on it for a thong or string; 6 is a flint knife (full size); the form is rather unusual, flint knives being generally straight; 7 is a full-size representation of the smallest of two bronze knives; the other differs from it in being 1 inch longer, and the shape not so curved; it should however be observed, that these two articles are supposed by some authorities to be modern forgeries. 8 is a bronze instrument about 6 inches long, and very sharp at the point; the metal and workmanship being similar to the knives, it therefore may also be spurious. 9. A lozenge-shaped “spindle-whorl” of jet. This and the three preceding are said to have come from Lough Guile. 10 is a stone, natural size, perforated with two holes crossing at right angles, and at each end a hole going a short way in. It is suggested that it may have been the axis of a small wheel, “the arms being inserted through the holes in the body of the stone, while it worked on two projections inserted into the holes at the ends.”[159]

At Lagore was found a bronze object, use unknown, fig. 196. In one part it is ornamented with a beautiful chased design, once probably enamelled. In the same crannog there was a square iron pipe, 2½ inches in length, to which a long hook was attached.

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.

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.

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

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 y^r 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 y^e said fortified islands lyeth all his plate, w^ch is much, and money, prisoners, and gages, w^ch islands hath in wars before been attempted, and now of late again by y^e Lord Deputy S^r Harry Sydney, w^ch, for want of means for safe conduct upon y^e 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 y^e carycht y^t Brean Karriche hade … and ane innyse (i.e. Island, namely Inishrush), y^t Brean Karriche hade of befair and Oneiles servand tuk y^t, and now we have gotten y^e 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:”—