208 
Dennis H. Kelly, Esq., read the following account of an ar- 
tificial island, and certain antiquities recently discovered near 
Strokestown, County Roscommon :— 
** About a mile to the west of Strokestown, in the County 
Roscommon, is Cluam Ppaoié (Cloonfree), the royal residence 
of the Kings of Connaught, of which frequent mention is made 
in the Annals of the Four Masters. Of this once royal resi- 
dence, the sole present remains are, a square, or rather oblong 
fort, about ninety paces by seventy, with a deep single fosse, 
covered over with tangled brushwood. Immediately to the 
south of the ancient palace, at a distance of about 500 yards, 
is the extremity of the lake of Cloonfree, and nearly joining on 
to it that of Cloonfinlough, whilst about a mile further on, 
Ardekillan completes the chain; and it is the artificial islands 
in these lakes, but especially that in Cloonfinlough, that form the 
proper subject of this paper, and any one wishing to more com=-_ 
pletely identify the locality can easily do so by referring to 
Sheets 28, 29 Ordnance Survey, County Roscommon. Each 
of these lakes has one of these islands in it; that in Cloonfree 
is situated just opposite to the site of the ancient palace, on the 
mainland ; that at Cloonfinlough, just opposite to the ruins of 
a small church, on the mainland, and that at Ardekillan in si- 
milar proximity to a ruined church, on the mainland. The 
one with which we are more immediately concerned is that in 
Cloonfinlough, Cluain pionn-loé, ‘the enclosure of the white 
lake,” a designation which it well merits, overlying, as it does, 
a stratum of very white shell marl. 
‘* The operations of the drainage works now going on under 
the Board of Works, in the vicinity of Strokestown, have 
greatly lowered the level of the water in all these lakes, and 
last summer laid bare the artificial islet of Cloonfinlough, ex- 
posing the nature of its structure, and a considerable deposit 
of bones adjoining it, amongst which have been found a large 
number of very miscellaneous antiquities. 
‘* The dimensions of the island are about 130 feet diameter ; 
