30 IRISH LAKE-DWELLINGS, OR CRANNOGES. CHAP. ii. 



In the lakes of Ireland alone, no less than forty-six exam- 

 ples of artificial islands, called crannoges, have been dis- 

 covered. They occur in Leitrim, Roscommon, Cavan, Down, 

 Monaghan, Limerick, Meath, King's Count}^, and Tj-rone.* 

 One class of these "stockaded islands/' as they have been 

 sometimes called, was formed, according to Mr. Digby Wyatt, 

 by placing horizontal oak beams at the bottom of the lake, 

 into which oak posts, from six to eight feet high, were mor- 

 tised, and held together by cross-beams, till a circular en- 

 closure was obtained. 



A space of 520 feet diameter, thus enclosed at Lagore, was 

 divided into sundry timbered compartments, which were found 

 filled up with mud or earth, from which were taken ''vast 

 quantities of the bones of oxen, swine, deer, goats, sheep, 

 dogs, foxes, horses, and asses." All these wei'e discovered be- 

 neath sixteen feet of bog, and were used for manure ; but 

 specimens of them are said to be preserved in the museum 

 of the Royal Irish Academy. From the same spot were ob- 

 tained a great collection of antiquities, which, according to 

 Lord Talbot de Malahide and Mr. W3-lie, were referable to 

 the ages of stone, bronze, and iron.f 



In Ardckillin Lake, in Roscommon, an islet of an oval form 

 was observed, made of a layer of stones resting on logs of 

 timber. Round this artificial islet or crannoge thus formed, 

 was a stone wall raised on oak piles. A careful description 

 has been put on record b}' Captain Mudge, R. N., of a curious 

 log cabin discovered by him in 1833 in Drumkellin bog, in 

 Donegal, at a depth of fourteen feet from the surface. It was 

 twelve feet square and nine feet high, being divided into two 

 stories each four feet high. The planking was of oak split 

 with wedges of stone, one of which was found in the building. 

 The roof was flat. A staked enclosure had been raised round 



» Wylie, p. 8. 



"t" Ibid., i». 8, who cites Archasological Journal, vol. vi. p. 101. 



