472 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 
LXVI.—Own Locn Berna, Co. Donzcat. By G. H. Krnaman. 
[Read, January 11, 1886.] 
In the Annals of the Four Masters we read of Loch Betha, which is: 
situated in the present parish of Gartan, Co. Donegal. The earliest 
notice of it seems to be in A. D. 1257, when one of the O’ Donnells was 
confined in its crannog for twelve months, while being healed of 
wounds he received when he fought near Sligo. We afterwards hear 
of this crannog during the internal wars of the O’Donnell sept. In 
1524, one Eoghan O’Donnell took the crannog from a Niall O’ Donnell; 
and then again, in 1540, it was besieged by an O’Donnell, who was. 
repulsed ; but he returned in the fall of the year, took it, broke it up, 
and completely demolished it. 
What lake this ‘‘ Loch Betha’”’ of the old annals may be is the 
subject of the present inquiry. In the parish of Gartan, at the present 
time, there are two lakes called ‘‘ Lough Beagh”’ on the Ordnance 
maps, or, as they are pronounced commonly, ‘‘ Lough Veagh,” B in 
Donegal being generally sounded like V. Ordinarily the northern 
lake is known in the county as ‘‘ Lough Beagh,”’ and the southern as 
‘‘Gartan Lough ;” but a very old man in the village of Lacknacoo, 
Edward Gallagher by name, insists that the proper name of the 
northern lake, where he was born, is Glenbeagh Lake, and that of the 
southern Derrybeagh Lake, and that the latter was more ancient (¢. e. 
famous) than the first. 
The present circumstances of the lakes would appear to suggest 
that Mr. Gallagher is correct. In the neighbourhood of Glenbeagh 
Lake there are now no prominent antiquities. High up the glen 
in the woods there is said to be the site of Mulroony M‘Graddy’s 
cell, a saint whose romantic death has given the name of Stragraddy 
to the hill west of Barnesbeg (see Molk-lore Journal, vol. ii1., pt. 111., 
p. 274); while at the north-eastern end of the Lake there are some 
small islands, one of which might have been that referred to; but none 
of them look like a crannog. This, however, is not the case when we 
go to examine Derrybeagh Lake, as in connexion therewith are various 
structural remains that would appear to point to its being a place of 
some note in olden times. 
To the north-east of the lake, extending out from the southernmost 
point of the hill, called the ‘‘ Bridge Island,” or ‘‘ The Glebe,” is a 
line of stones, now known as ‘“ Saint Columbkille’s Stepping-stones,” 
while 200 yards from the point is a group, called the “Giant’s. 
Grave,’’ as a giant is said to have been buried there when destroyed 
by his enemies; but nothing more about him is now known. The 
map exhibited, taken from the Ordnance, shows the position of 
this group. A little north-west of the ‘‘ Giant’s Grave,” occupying 
