4-8 [Proc. B.N.F.C., 



long before that period they must have been occupied as places 

 of security. This is shown by the character of the numerous 

 examples of flint, stone, and bronze tools, weapons, and personal 

 ornaments found in them, indicating an age as remote as the 

 earliest settlements of Britain. Many of our oldest Crannogs were 

 occupied until comparatively recent times, and were even then 

 important strongholds. The great length of time during which 

 several of the Crannogs continued to be occupied is proved by the 

 enormous quantities of refuse animal remains contained in and 

 around their sites. Upwards of 150 cartloads of bones were dug 

 from the Crannog of Lagore, County Meath. Similar collections 

 occurred at the Crannogs subsequently discovered at Lough Gur, 

 County Limerick; Strokestown, County Roscommon ; Ballinderry, 

 near Moate ; and in numerous other localities, including about 

 twenty Crannogs personally examined by Mr. Wakeman in 

 Fermanagh and its neighbourhood. 



The reader, after giving a comprehensive view of what is under- 

 stood by the several periods recognised by archaeologists as 

 the Stone, the Bronze, and Iron ages, proceeded to give a sum- 

 mary of the various remains found in Crannogs, and the condi- 

 tions under which they occur, dealing more especially with such 

 as have come under his own observation in Fermanagh and ad- 

 joining counties, a district peculiarly rich in these interesting 

 structures, and fortunate in having earnest workers, who make 

 them a special study and give the public the benefit of their 

 research. 



Numerous specimens of stone weapons, and implements of 

 horn and bone, jet ornaments, and those curious and even mysteri- 

 ous beads of glass or vitreous paste, illustrative alike of the war- 

 like and domestic habits of long-forgotten races, were exhibited 

 and described, together with a very large collection of rude pot- 

 tery of a domestic character, of a type apparently peculiar to Irish 

 Crannogs, which occurs in their immediate neighbourhood. Of 

 the remains of the true Bronze period many good examples have 

 been found, though doubtless many interesting specimens have 



