148 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



The outer diameter of the ditch is 146 feet. The diameter of the mound, 

 which is concentric with the ditch, ranges from 107 to 110 feet. The present 

 depth of the ditch is 1 foot 6 inches below the level of the surrounding field ; 

 and the mound is only 4 feet above the same level (Plate XVI, fig. 1). A 

 subsidiary ditch, almost effaced, can be traced on the top of the mound 

 as shown in the plan and section. The only other surface-indication to be 

 noted before the excavation began was a slight depression on the north 

 side, indicating the site of the landing-stage presently to be described. 



Trial-pits sunk in the field surrounding the site showed a foot of marly 

 loam, underlaid by 2 to 3 feet of white marl full of Limnaea and other fresh- 

 water mollusea. Below this was peat with stones, also full of shells, and then 

 water came in. Excavation of the ditch showed that it had been dug 

 through the loam, and on through a foot or more of the marl, and had 

 subsequently silted up to the extent of a foot or so with loamy material. 



The antiquities described below prove that this dwelling is not very 

 ancient ; and the facts observed in examining its construction show that the 

 old lake was approximating to its modern condition when the site was selected 

 for a dwelling. The surrounding fields, still liable to winter floods, and 

 drained by deep and always running ditches, were at the time a lake, very 

 shallow, though of considerable extent. Otherwise it is not easy to see how 

 the ditch, which is so conspicuous a part of the structure, could have been laid 

 out and dug. The small elevation of the mound, which there is no reason to 

 suppose was ever very much higher, accords with this view. The stony 

 margin of the old lake, 2 to 3 feet above the level of its old bottom, was 

 easily discernible in places in the surrounding fields. 



The usual method of building crannogs was adopted in this ease. A 

 stockade of piles being driven into the soft lake-bottom, material was heaped 

 up inside, till an island was formed rising above the surface of the water at 

 its highest flood. 



The material used was varied. In some parts large stones predominated. 

 Elsewhere marl had been used in quantity ; in other places peat— all now full 

 of bones and ashes. The presence of a continuous outer coating of stones and 

 rubble, devoid of remains, on the sloping periphery of the crannog, suggests 

 a strengthening and enlarging of the site at some date late in its history 

 by the conveyance from the mainland of a considerable quantity of material. 

 This ring of later material both enclosed and overlay the mass of bone- 

 bearing peat and marl. The observed fact that it stopped abruptly on the 

 inner edge of the slight inner ditch which is shown on the plan and section, 

 and was at once succeeded by almost pure ash, full of bones, &e., suggests 

 that the edge of the inner ditch marks the line of an inner palisade, or 



