"It is constructed on oak piles (many of them showing the action of fire), driven into the soft marl at regular distances, and tied together by horizontal stretchers, so as to form a triple stockade round it, with an interval of about five feet between each stockade. Outside of this, to the north-westward, are a number of irregularly placed piles, stretching a short distance from the islet, and it was adjoining to them the great deposit of bones was found. The centre of these stockades was laid with trunks of smallish oak trees, placed flat on the marl, and all pointing to a common centre, thus forming a platform whereon the island itself was constructed. When it was first observed, there was, jutting out from the island to the lake, towards the west, a kind of jetty or pier, formed of a double row of piles and stretchers running parallel, about 8 feet asunder, and on which logs of timber were closely laid horizontally.
"Of this gangway, and of the stockades, there are now but very imperfect remains, so much has been broken up and removed by the peasantry.
"The deposit of bones, etc., close to this island, consisted of bones of cattle, deer, horses, swine, sheep, fowl, dogs, deer, both fallow and red, a few specimens (in general much broken) of the horns of the Irish elk, and one or two specimens of human remains, and amongst them a quantity of articles of a most miscellaneous description, some of apparently very great antiquity, and others of a much more recent date. Amongst these are spear-heads, bronze pins, some of exquisite workmanship, and scarcely any two of exactly the same form. A brass bowl, hammered out of the solid; two brass vessels, made of small pieces most curiously riveted together; a brooch of handsome workmanship; a variety of bone pins and implements; deer-horn combs, of very great artistic merit; horn discs, like backgammon men; knives, hooks, and hatchets of iron; swords and spear-heads; an iron implement, like what a baker uses for putting his loaves in the oven, made of sheet iron, curiously riveted together, and having in the centre a circular ornament, with a cross in it, that has evidently once had an arabesque pattern on it; sundry miniature frying-pans, and a small whetstone; single and double bronze rings; one coin of the Emperor Hadrian; one bulla, Pope Paul V.; sundry silver coins, most of them Edwards, and one so late as James, 1690, and one silver coin, unfigured in any collection that I have seen.
"Between the island and the ruined church were found two canoes, hollowed out of single oak trees, but neither of them much more than two feet wide; the stern of one of them was perforated with numerous auger holes, about one inch each in diameter.
"On examining the structure of the island itself, which was effected by cutting a trench 20 feet long by 5 wide, as near the centre as possible, there was found, at about eight inches under the surface, which was covered with rank grass growing in a rich mould, a very close-laid pavement of irregular-sized boulder stones. When this was removed, a stratum of black earth was exposed, with occasional fragments of bones through it of swine, fowl, sheep, cattle, and deer; and about six inches beneath this, a considerable layer of burned earth, with several inches of unburned clay under it. Then came a second very closely-laid pavement of large-sized, flat-surfaced stones, beneath which were alternate layers of black earth and burned clay and marl, reaching down to the log platform, and interspersed, like the one above it, with occasional bones and fragments of bones; some few human remains, viz. one skull, and portions of some more were got on the exterior edge. No coffin-stone, chest, or other sepulchral remains.
Fig. 116.—Cloonfinlough.
Bronze Dish, 7¾ inches
wide, and decorated inside.
"Amongst these relics are knives, some of which have failed in the forging; combs in an incomplete state of manufacture, deer-horns sawn in sunder, and shavings as if left after a turner. From these I am led to think that, whatever may have been its original occupants, in later times the little island resounded to the busy hum of industry, and that the smith, the brazier, the comb-maker, and the turner, there drove a brisk trade, and sometimes solaced their leisure in the construction of pretty toys, like the tiny plate-bucket in the possession of the post-mistress of Strokestown, and whose neatness of finish would do no discredit to our best modern cabinet-makers. It is turned in oak, and hooped with brass, four and a half inches high, and four inches diameter. There was originally a pair, but one was unfortunately broken."
From Cloonfinlough only the following relics went to the Museum of the Irish Academy:—