In 1541 the eastern crannog in the lake of Glencar, on the borders of Sligo and Leitrim, was taken by one sept of the O’Rourkes from another. Shortly afterwards the dispossessed proprietor attempted to set fire to the “fortress,” but was discovered, pursued by boats, taken prisoner, and hanged. In the summer of 1540, O’Donnell besieged the crannog of Loch Betha, now Lough Veagh, county Donegal. He encamped round the lake shores, but failed to take the stronghold. In the autumn he, however, defeated his opponents, and “broke up and completely demolished the crannog.” Previous mention is made of it as the scene of strife in the year 1524, when Eoghan O’Donnell took Niall O’Donnell’s “town” (i.e. the crannog of Loch Betha); whilst in 1257 O’Donnell was confined to this crannog during twelve months from wounds received in a battle near Sligo. In 1512 the crannog of Mac Gauran was taken by Mac Guire. In 1495 Mac Gauran, a chief of Tallaghaw, in the present county Cavan, was drowned in Loch Crannoige of Coill-an-mhuilinn (i. e. Lake Crannog of the Wood of the Mill), now Ballywillen Lough. In 1477 a violent tempest swept over Ireland which did great damage, especially to crannogs. Had these structures not been very numerous, the chroniclers would scarcely have drawn special attention to the havoc thus wrought. In 1455 Torlogh Mac Guire took and plundered the crannog of Mac Clancy on Lough Melvin, county Leitrim. In 1452 O’Hanley was murdered by his own tribe in the crannog of Loch-Leisi (stated by O’Donovan to be now called Muckenagh Lough), in the parish of Kilmeam, county Roscommon; whilst in 1246 it is of record that O’Conor made his escape when a prisoner from the same lake-dwelling, after drowning his guards. In 1368 an O’Conor was taken prisoner in the crannog of Ardakillen, parish of Killukin, county Roscommon, and in 1388 another O’Conor burned this crannog and the Island of Loch-Cairgin (i. e. Cargin’s Lough[174]), near Tulsk in the same county. In 1365 Brian Mac Mahon, chief of Oriel, invited his father-in-law to a banquet, where he made him prisoner, and “put him in a lake to conceal him”[175]—evidently meaning his confinement in a crannog—for Mac Geoghegan states that the captive was committed “to a strong place on a lough to be kept.” In 1247 Mac Costello took and garrisoned the crannog of Cloonloch (now Lough Clean), county Leitrim, and expelled the proprietor, Mac Rannall, who, however, succeeded in recapturing his stronghold.
In 1223 William de Lacy, one of the great Anglo-Norman settlers in Ireland erected “the crannog of Inis-Laodhachain, and the Connacht men entered forcibly upon it, and let out on parole the people who were in it.” This erection of a lake-dwelling by a Norman baron is an instance of the habit laid to the charge of many of the English, of forsaking their own language and usages, and of living according to the manner of the Irish amongst whom they dwelt. “The names Inis-Laodhachain and Loch-Laodhachain are now obsolete.” In 1220 “Walter de Laci came to Erinn, and performed a great hosting to the crannog of O’Raighilligh.[176] He went upon it and obtained hostages and great power.” The crannog here referred to “appears to have been situated in Lough Oughter, county Cavan, where the old castle of Cloch-Uachtair (or Cloch-Oughter) now stands. In a letter from Guy de Chatillon to Henry III., dated July, 1224, Grennoch Oraely (as the name is therein written) is stated to have been captured from William de Lacy by Oraely, Walter de Riddelsford, and Richard Tuit, on the same day on which the castle of Kilmore (county Cavan) was taken, from which it appears to have been in the neighbourhood.”
There is evidence that some crannogs were constructed by the Northmen, for in 1170 the chief of a small territory in the barony and county Monaghan “was killed by the men of a fleet which came from the Orkneys, in the island which had been constructed by themselves in Loch-Ruidhe, i. e. Inis-Lachain.” There is no lake in Ireland now known by that name; but to the south of Coleraine there is a small island in the river Bann called “the Loughan,” which bears all the appearance of having been artificially constructed.[177] In 1150 an Irish chief was killed “on the island of Loch-Laighaire.” This crannog lay in the country of the “Sliocht O’Neills,” and, as appears from subsequent references, was situated to the south of Lifford, in the barony of Clogher, county Tyrone, and was the residence of that branch of the O’Neills. It is written Loch-Laoghaire and Loch-Laighaire, i. e. Leary’s Lake, said to have been so called from “Leary the Victorious,” one of the heroes of the Red Branch Knights of Ulster, in the first century; but for nearly two hundred years it has been generally known under the designation Corcreevy, i. e. wooded hill. In 1845, when the water had been drained off, the crannog was here discovered. There are several allusions to it in the Irish Annals. In 1325 “O’Donnell, the son of Brian O’Neill, Lord of Tyrone, died at Loch-Laighaire. In 1431 Nachtan O’Donnell went to assault the castle of Loch-Laighaire, and took it from Turlough O’Donnell, and all the spoils that were in it he carried off.” In 1436 the crannog had been seized by the O’Neills, when some of the same sept summoned Mac Guire to their assistance and “commenced constructing boats to go to the crannog, but the sons of Bryan, who were then in the crannog, came to the resolution of delivering it up.” In 1500 Hugh Roe O’Donnell “burned the crannog of Loch-Laighaire;” whilst in 1509 there is a notice of a fight between two septs of the O’Neills on the shores of the lake.
In 1025, it is stated in the Annals of Loch Cé, that a predatory expedition was made by the inhabitants of Fermanagh, on which occasion they burned the crannog on Loch-n-Uaithne (Lough Ooney), “and slew seventeen men on the margin of the lake.” Lough Ooney lies in the county Monaghan, in the barony of Dartry, the chiefs of which territory had their principal residence on this lake, whence they were sometimes designated “Lords of Loch-n-Uaithne.”
In the enumeration of various kinds of fortresses repaired by Brian Borumha, crannogs are included, as recorded in a well-known Irish ms. entitled “The Wars of the Gaedhiel with the Gaill.” In it mention is made of four crannogs, one being near Knockany, county Limerick, and situated in Lough Cend, now drained; also the celebrated crannog in Lough Gur, in the same county. The site of the crannog of Loch Saiglend has not been identified;[178] the site of Inis-an-ghaill-duibh (i. e. the island of the black foreigner or Dane,[179]) is unknown, or at least uncertain; however, in the Dublin copy of the Annals of Innisfallen, under date 1016, it is stated to have been situated in the river Shannon. We learn that in some of his numerous conflicts with the Danes, Brian Borumha pillaged various islands in the Shannon, where the invaders had placed their women and children for safety, as well as their treasure, as “there was much gold and other wealth in these islands and fortifications.” In 990 a violent tempest “sunk the island of Lough Cimbe (now Lough Hackett) suddenly, dreach and rampart, i. e. thirty feet;” this crannog was afterwards rebuilt by Brian Borumha.
With the Danes, the struggle in Ireland between invaders and invaded was carried on as much in the lakes and rivers as on terra firma. Of the importance attached to crannogs during this contest many instances might be given, but a few will here suffice. In 984 “the islands of Connaught were destroyed by these marauders.” In 933 the crannog of Lagore in Meath was burnt by them; whilst in 848 they fired and dismantled it. Lagore being the residence of one of the principal chiefs of Meath, frequent notices of it appear in the annals, where it is written Loch-Gabhar. “Gabhur” is an ancient Irish and British word for a horse, and accordingly the name Loch-gabhra, which occurs in the life of St. Aidus, is translated Stagnum-equi, the lake of the horse,[180] now euphonized “Lagore.” In 967 Beollán, “king” of this place, died; in 907 Maelogra, also “king” of Lagore, was slain; whilst in 868 the son of Edirscel, “king” of Lagore, fell fighting against the Danes. In 865 Tighernach, “king” of Lagore and “half-king” of Meath, died; and in 856 Cinaedh, chief of the present baronies of Upper and Lower Duleek, in Meath, in alliance with the Danes, “spoiled the islands” of Lagore. This entry is of great importance, as it points to the probability of the site of another crannog or crannogs in close proximity to the celebrated historical stronghold dug out of its peaty covering in 1847, and which as early as A.D. 673, must have been of importance, for in that year a considerable battle took place on the shores of the lake. In 927 and 928 the Danes plundered “the islands of Lough Neagh,” and in 922 the same fate befel “the islands of Lough Rea.”
In 847 “the island of Inis-Muinremhar,” in Lough Ramor, county Cavan, was “demolished by the inhabitants of Leyney, county Sligo, and Gallen, county Mayo, who were plundering the territories after the manner of the Gentiles.”[181] In 636 a chieftain named Maelduin was burned to death in “the island” of Inishkeen, county Louth, on the borders of Monaghan,[182] and in the same year mention is made in the Annals of the Four Masters of “a lake in which a crannog was built, situated in Oriel (but not now known), called Loch-da-damh, the lake of the two oxen.”[183]
There is an ancient poem in Irish,[184] attributed to St. Columbkille, which commences—
“Alone am I on the mountain.”