328 Plunkett — On a Long Barrow in the Co. Fermanagh. 



the large block found in the dyke must have fallen from the raft 

 while in transit. 



As there has been no such thing as artificial drainage on a large 

 scale in this part of the country, all the physical changes in the 

 valley (which is now crop, meadow, and grazing land) must have 

 been brought about by the slow process of nature, since the construc- 

 tion of the monument. As the waters slowly receded from the 

 valley, there was left behind, in a concave depression, a sheet of water 

 which formed a land-lake about 50 perches from the barrow. In 

 this lake the ancient crannoge-builders constructed one of their 

 lake-dwellings. The basin of this lake is now filled with a deposit of 

 very black compact peat, which covers the surface of the crannoge to 

 a depth of 4 feet. 



Near this staked dwelling, at a considerable depth in the peat, was 

 found a canoe of a very rude type, scooped out of the trunk of an oak 

 tree. I examined this crannoge several times, and found rude pottery, 

 pieces of bronze, and smooth round stones, together with small objects 

 made of stone — which were probably regarded as sacred and worn as 

 charms — and, amongst other articles, a polished stone celt. The reason 

 I refer to the crannoge is, that I found, mixed with the articles above 

 named, a quantity of slag, or dross of metals, and I found exactly the 

 same kind of slag, about one foot beneath the surface of the higher 

 end of the barrow, together with a quantity of ashes ; and I think 

 that it is but reasonable to infer that this tumulus was regarded as a 

 natural mound by the lake-dwellers, and that they used it for the 

 same purpose as they did the crannoge — as a place for smelting metals ; 

 and most probably at the same time. 



The fact of a stone celt being found in the crannoge shows, accord- 

 ing to pre-historic archaeologists, that these early lake-dwellers be- 

 longed to the neolithic period. If this is their place, according to 

 the recognised order of these things, I think the building of the 

 monument may be referred to that* dark mysterious period known by 

 the name of "palaeolithic." 



